Volunteer Spotlight: Bril Lopez

How / Why did you get involved with PDXWIT?

When I was attending code school the world of tech was an absolute mystery to me so I began attending meetups. Thanks to organizations like PDXWIT I learned a lot about the industry and the community surrounding it. After I got my first job as a software engineer, I wanted to give back to the community that helped me along the way and reached out to PDXWIT.

I have had a lot of hobbies in my life that I am passionate about. I have played in professional events for both Magic the Gathering and bowling. I even played poker as my main source of income for a while. Somewhere along the way I discovered coding and fortunately was able to make it a career as a software engineer.

What do you like best about PDXWIT?

My favorite event was the first event I volunteered at. I can be very shy in large groups of people and this event was a PDXWIT Happy Hour at New Relic with probably over 100 attendees. Hazel was aware that I was shy and appointed me the duty of introducing people to each other and helping people network. It was very uncomfortable at first to walk up to people and start conversation but after a while I started having fun. It really improved my networking skills and helped me overcome some personal fears.

What do you do for fun in Portland?

Nowadays I am dipping my toes in a new hobby, poi and rope darts, aka lighting things on fire and spinning them around. I'm mostly practicing with LED props and have only set them on fire a couple times but I hope to get competent enough to set them on fire without concern.

- LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/dlopez6877/