About Me

  • Name:Andrew VanderLeest
  • Contact:vandydevelops@gmail.com

Hello There!

I’m a self-taught developer and former special education teacher who is equally passionate about technology and human beings. I have a knack for critical thinking, breaking down complex systems to find solutions, and collaborating with others throughout. I’ve found that regardless of the domain, I enjoy building, fixing, improving, and working with others who are passionate about what they do.

I left education in August 2023 and since then have worked through several online courses in Python, covering everything from "Hello World" to web scraping, API creation and RESTful routing, GUI desktop apps, webserver and database development/deployment, and data analysis including visualization and creating prediction models. I enjoy writing clean, maintainable, organized code and building projects with others.

For me, learning is lifelong; there isn't a stopping point, and obtaining new skills is something I enjoy. I have an interest in learning JS for front-end development and Swift for mobile app development in the near future.

Python Skillset

API & Webserver

Requests, Flask, Jinja, Flaskform/WTForms, Flask-Login, Flask-SQLalchemy, authentication, Werkzeug security

GUI

Experience with Tkinter for GUI development and Turtle for simple games. See my photo watermarking app and my re-creation of Frogger below.

Web Scraping

Strong experience with BeautifulSoup & Selenium Webdriver; I used these both in developing my BrewBites project below.

Data Analysis

I've worked with Pandas, Matplotlib, Plotly, Seaborn, SciKitLearn, and NumPy to sort, organize, analyze, and visualize data.

Version Control

Both CLI Git & GitHub; committing, branching, merging, forking, pull requests. My entire self-taught learning progression is viewable on my Github profile.

Miscellaneous

JSON, SMTP, datetime, time, requests, dotenv libraries, and many other common useful Python tools.

Work

BrewBites

Full Stack Web App: Database, Server, and Site. Scrapes local brewey food truck listings daily and displays the pairings in one place. This is an ongoing project I love working on and am passionate about building further.

Password Manager App

A simplified LastPass clone; generates passwords, stores and retrieves user login information.

Zillow Bot

Automated Scraping & Data Entry

"Frurtle" (Frogger in Turtle)

Game: A simple recreation of Frogger using the Turtle library.

Cheap Flight Finder

API & Object-Oriented Programming: Takes a Google Sheet of flight criteria, searches for matches within given price range, and notifies the user via email.

Blog Site

Full stack blog site: PostgreSQL db, user and admin account functionality, WTForms for rich text capabilities.

WaterMarkIt!

A photo-watermarking app built with Tkinter.

Real Estate Prices Prediciton Model

A data exploration and linear regression prediction model project using Pandas, Matplotlib, Numpy, and Seaborn.

My Resume

  • Work Experience

  • Licensed Special Education Case Manager

    Lionsgate Academy - 2018 - 2023

    Administered standardized skill assessments, developed and coordinated educational plans to target skill deficits in learners on the Autism spectrum. Coordinated and led teams of related stakeholders and service providers.

  • Special Education Assistant

    Spero Academy - 2014 - 2018

    Directly supported students with cognitive, behavioral, emotional, and developmental challenges throughout all aspects of the school day, including speech, occupational, and music therapy services. Implemented behavior interventions and personal care assistance as needed.

  • Applied Behavior Analysis Line Therapist

    Autism and Behavior Center - 2013 - 2014

    Provided in-home delivery of services for children with autism through a broad spectrum of advanced therapeutic and educational programs. Utilized empirically supported intervention procedures within a developmental framework through Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA).

  • Systems Management & Configuration Technician

    UW-Eau Claire - 2013

    Assited with software packaging, deployment, and campus wide system monitoring. Prepared software for remote deployment to campus computers through Microsoft Systems Center Configuration Manager, and worked to remedy inconsistencies in software installations campus-wide.

  • Help Desk Technician - Learning & Technology Services

    UW-Eau Claire - 2010 - 2013

    Provided support for campus technology issues related to hardware, software, networking, campus websites and systems, mobile devices, and software training for students, staff, and faculty.


  • Education

  • Master's Degree

    University of St. Thomas - 2018

    M.A. in Special Education & Teaching, Summa Cum Laude honors, 3.9 GPA

  • Bachelor's Degree

    University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire - 2014

    B.S. in Communication Sciences & Disorders, 3.8 Program GPA

Proof of Work

In an effort to demonstrate my skill development over time, I've logged my progress regularly on a dedicated X-Twitter account since I began learning to code last September, with comments and discussion along the way.

@vandy_dev on X


bluescreenlife's github heatmap

I've also committed just about everything I've learned/created to GitHub along the way, so that my contribution graph represents my learning-to-code activity during this time. You can review my GitHub profile here.

Let's Connect

I would love to chat about my skillset and fit for your company or organization. Reach out any time.

Contact Me