Your Django Story: Meet Leslie Ray

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Leslie Ray was born and raised in Logan, Utah, where she fell in love with music, then moved to Houston, Texas, where she fell in love with her husband David Ray. They had babies in Indiana and Utah and are raising them in North Carolina. She is the current organizer of PyLadies RDU, thinks her garden is magical, and continues to sing loud and play the fiddle. She holds a Doctorate of Music from Indiana University, a Masters of Music from Rice University and a Bachelors of Arts from Utah State University.

 

How did your story with code start?

My husband is a singer turned software engineer. We met in music school. Occasionally I would look over his shoulder to see what he was doing. My interest grew from there.

I was first exposed to coding when I worked as a program coordinator at Utah State University where I helped organize the Open Ed conference. I met some really cool programmers who became forever friends. They used Python and told me I should learn it but to be honest, it looked very foreign to me.

 

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I have taught music since I was 18 and have done a lot of University teaching and performing. Most of the things on my bucket list to build pertain to music.

 

What do you love the most about coding?

I like that Python can solve simple, everyday problems such as merging excel files or help you conduct a raffle. I like to build out my own ideas and like music, coding offers a continuous path for learning.

 

Why Django?

Django is well organized and I have great resources to help me out in a pinch.

My husband discovered Django and it was his enthusiasm that got me interested. My first exposure was a bootcamp through Caktus Consulting Group. They did a fantastic job! My life is very busy with music, teaching, working and kids so it wasn’t something I could spend 100% of my time learning. I played around with online tutorials like Tango with Django, the Django doc tutorial and of course the Django Girls tutorial. However, creating a simple blog gets boring. Recently, I took a Django class at UNC taught by Caktus’ Astro Code School teacher Caleb Smith. He was wonderful, very patient and really cared about his student’s success. To keep myself going, I am teaching a Django class through PyLadies called, “Beyond the Blog.”

 

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Currently, I am working on a project which will help my musician friends create and share musical programs. My life is full but I hope to get this launched soon.

As organizer of PyLadies RDU, I am hoping our group can create a Django site as a community service project. We’ve had a meeting on this and I hope this is something that comes to fruition. This fall I will be helping to TA a DjangoGirls workshop organized by Caktus Consulting Group. They’ve really done a lot of good in this area promoting Django, and women in tech.

 

What are you the most proud of?

My kids. They are awesome and super funny too.

 

What are you curious about?

New ideas. I am always trying to figure out and solve the world’s problems and become fast friends with anyone who tries to do the same. With regards to programming, I really want to improve my Django skills am also curious about Pandas.

 

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

Coding, family, running, biking, pretending I’m a rock star. I make and occasionally sell homemade soap called “Singer’s Soap: A Natural Accompaniment to Clean Performances.”

 

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

The hardest part is learning enough to be able to ask the right questions. Once you know how to ask the right questions, you become more resourceful and don’t have to rely as much on others. Also, remember most adults don’t learn new things because they are too afraid to go through the steep learning curve. Don’t be scared. Life’s too short. Just learn the way that works for you and always surround yourself by nice people.

Thanks Leslie! :)

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