My name is Brandon (my friends call me Bee), and I grew up in the Detroit area. I moved around many times, but most of my time was spent in East Michigan, Tampa FL, Chicago IL, and Grand Rapids MI. After high school, I moved to Tampa with some friends. Here, I worked as a lifeguard while starting community college. After finishing my Associate's degree, I started studying Mathematics at the University of South Florida while discovering my talents as a baker and bakery manager. After a long time spent in Tampa, I moved to Chicago. I was there for less than 1 year before COVID hit and decided to move to Grand Rapids.

Some things that I value are: honesty, vulnerability, empathy, creativity, reliability, and community. I do my best to embody these. Grand Rapids has given me an environment to thrive. I have a solid group of friends and peers, and I actively engage in various clubs, activities, and public events. My main activites right now are Bike Polo and knitting. One recent achievement that I was involved in for bike polo was securing, fundraising, and building new multi-use courts at Highland Park. Our club has a new home to play and host tournaments.

Some of my favorite things are travelling, baking, cycling, coffee, and the French language. I combined all of these loves in one cycling trip around France in 2019 (pictured here). The trip comprised of about 1500 miles around France in about 2 months. I picked up a bicycle for 99 Euros in Nice and started on my journey. I crashed with families, in hostels, or just by camping in a park or the side of a trail. I'd stay for a time in cities visiting museums, getting a taste of local bakeries and coffee ships, and occasionally enjoying the night life.

Outside of the cities, the countryside was breathtaking. I cycled around mountains, pedalled next to the Mediterranean Sea, and spend days riding past miles of grape and olive farms. One of my favorute routes was following the canal from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Much of it was a dirt path shared by other cyclists and pedestrians, exhanging friendly greetings while passing by. It was the most memorable time of my life, and I can't wait to visit again.

Throughout my formal and self-taught education, I ambitiously worked as a full time baker, customer support, and as a manager. I developed my professional persona with pride in my work and an ability to communicate effectively with my team, customers, and stakeholders. As an operations analyst and systems developer, I have:

• Automated billing, turning two full-time jobs into just minutes of work
• Designed, developed a MSSQL database and node.js API to sync data from warehouse management software
• Designed, developed front-end React user interfaces, dashboards
• Made various software improvements to increase warehouse productivity