I originally went to college to learn how to be an electrical engineer.  I was fascinated by radio and television (and still am). I spent three years at Clemson University in South Carolina studying mathematics, physics,  and all of the other courses required for an engineering degree.  I left Clemson in my Junior year, joined the Army, apparently did well on a language test, and got sent to the  Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California for a year of intensive study.  The language? Vietnamese.  It was "popular" at the time:  you may recall the war that was raging in Southeast Asia.  Being exposed to this language and the culture of Vietnam changed my life:  I became seriously interested in linquistics and  Asian languages in particular.

I spent six months in Vietnam and six months in Korea  monitoring North Vietnamese radio transmissions.  I enjoyed my stay in both countries.  While in Korea I took two Korean language classes with the University of Maryland and continued my interest in the Vietnamese language.

After leaving the Army, I studied Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and a little bit of Japanese at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.  I graduated with a degree in Chinese-Vietnamese Studies and immediately began a graduate program in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language).  After one semester I became tempted by an offer to work in radio news at a local radio station and left graduate school.  I spent the next six years working in radio news as a reporter, writer, announcer, program director, news director, and manager in Hawaii, Texas, and Delaware.

I returned to graduate school to participate in a new program that caught my attention:  a Master's degree in Technical and Science Communication at Drexel University in Philadelphia.  I minored in Computer Science and enjoyed those courses so much that I decided to also study for  a Master's degree in Computer Science, which I did.

After completing the two Masters degrees I did doctoral studies at Drexel and since then have taught a variety of computer science and mathematics courses at Drexel University, Penn State University, Elizabethtown College, and Swarthmore College, all in Pennsylvania.

I joined The University of Maryland European Division in January 1989 and have taught at SHAPE in Belgium, Soesterberg Air Base in Holland, Aviano Air Base in Italy, and at several German locations:  Augsburg, Bad Kreuznach, Baumholder, Berlin,  Geilenkirchen, Giebelstadt, Hahn, Hanau, Heidelberg, Kapaun (Kaiserslautern), Kitzingen, Mannheim, Ramstein, Schweinfurt, Spangdahlem,  Wiesbaden, and Wuerzburg.