Alexina Chong

Software Engineer based in Berkeley, CA · alexina.chong@gmail.com

Ever since I wrote my first line of HTML at the age of nine, I’ve been hooked on the sense of accomplishment that comes with having an idea in mind and being able to turn it into reality with a little bit of code. I’ve continued to pursue that feeling of invincibility over the years, adding a minor in Computer Science and skills in Ruby, Rails, JavaScript, ReactJS, and CSS to my repertoire along the way.

Experience

Research Specialist

National Writing Project
  • Designed five websites using Google Sites and custom HTML/CSS/JavaScript for various conferences, that functioned as the primary source of calibration training for the participants.
  • Developed surveys and grant applications on SurveyGizmo and FluidReview, including branching logic construction, report design, and data cleaning in Excel of datasets containing up to 14,000 survey responses.
  • Prepared wireframes and mockups, developed a color scheme, and contributed to the overall user interface design plans for a new data collection system to be created by an external development contractor.
  • Provided technical support for the internal scoring system and external communication platforms (Slack and Unhangout) used during online scoring events.
February 2016 - December 2017

Program Specialist

National Writing Project
  • Provided logistical support for multiple national programs, including event coordination, correspondence with network members from the organization’s 170+ local sites nationwide, and resource development.
  • Launched the organization’s online store, including researching and selecting an e-commerce platform & print-on-demand service, assisting in merchandise design and mockup creation, and managing orders.
  • Developed program websites and materials with an emphasis on user experience optimization.
  • Supervised a team of up to six assistants and facilitated inter-departmental assignments.
  • Acted as primary technical support for national Annual Meeting registration and program-specific conferences.
November 2014 - January 2016

Administrative Assistant II

National Writing Project
  • Primarily involved in research of potential nonprofit funders.
  • Maintained an internal database containing 1000+ leads on potential funder research and grant opportunities.
  • Drafted outreach letters to published authors and screenwriters on behalf of the executive team.
  • Prepared materials to be circulated at Board of Directors and national meetings.
February 2013 - October 2014

Research Assistant | Discourse, Interaction, and Learning Lab

UC Berkeley Graduate School of Education
  • Primarily involved in statistical data analysis of student interviews to determine whether expansive framing of learning is a more effective method of instruction than more traditional, bounded teaching methods.
  • Constructed follow-up interview scripts and survey questions in collaboration with the research team.
  • Transcribed and analyzed student interviews from video and audio data.
February 2012 - May 2013

Education

App Academy

Full-Stack Web Development
1000-hour immersive full-stack web development program with <3% acceptance rate
December 2017 - March 2018

University of California, Berkeley

BA in Linguistics | Minor in Computer Science

Curriculum Highlights: User Interface Design, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Quantitative Linguistics

August 2009 - May 2014

Skills

Programming Languages & Tools

Projects

ALEXINOTE (Rails, ReactJS)

AlexiNote is a note-taking and organizational tool modeled after Evernote, built with Rails and ReactJS/Redux.
  • Integrated the React-Quill component supporting rich-text editing of notes to allow users to enter notes in a WYSIWYG editor.
  • Embedded the Action View Date Helper module to produce human-friendly relative date formatting.
  • Incorporated the React Modal component to display the list of notebooks adjacent to a user’s open note to provide a smoother and less disruptive user experience.
live | github

LYRICAL EVOLUTION (Express, JavaScript)

Lyrical Evolution is a data visualization tool built in JavaScript comparing the lyrical themes of the top songs per decade.
  • Used the Genius API and the Billboard Top 100 list to generate a text set of lyrics for the most popular songs of each decade.
  • Constructed word clouds of the most used words in song lyrics of each decade using the Highcharts JS library.
live | github

Awards