Who Am I ? How Did I Get Here ?
Hello there. My name is Alfred Moore IV. I go by the nickname Ajay/A.J. though. My journey to MATC has been a long one. I went to Wauwatosa East High School. I graduated in the year 2000. I always had the ambition to go to college. I decided to take a year off before I went to college. Or so I thought. Because I took a year off I needed a job to support myself. I ended up working at a parts department inside an Oldsmobile dealer. It was a full time job. Then I heard the most wonderful news. My fiance at the time became pregnant. My job at the dealer did not provide great benefits. I took a new job as a dispatcher for AAA. This job had better benefits. I was able to support my family and be ready for when my child was born.
My daughter was born on September 13,2001. It was two days after 9/11. Her birthday newspaper is actually a very depressing example of what mankind is able to achieve in the name of hatred. The feelings I had at the time where very conflicted. I was excited that my daughter,Victoria Ashley, was born but at the same time disgusted as I witnessed my era's Kennedy Assassination.
After I worked at AAA Wisconsin for about five years; the company closed down and combined its operations with AAA Michigan. I was also laid off and rehired one time during that five year period. At this point in time one year turned to five.
I was laid off for one year prior to my next hire. It was not too much of a problem for my family. The reason being is that my daughter is autistic. Autistic children require intense behavioral therapy from an early age. Since we just learned she was autistic we were starting this process. It was very helpful to my daughter that I was home. She needed a familiar face around going through the early stages of behavioral therapy.
I then took a job at Dana Sealing Products in 2006. I worked there as a third shift punch press operator. That job was even better than AAA. Only con was I had to be on third shift. I worked at what I considered a very mind numbing job. Eventually I became a Union Representative. This was one of the best experiences in my life.
While I was working at Dana I had the dream to further my education. At the same time my wife informed me she wanted to go to college(after pushing her for awhile). We decided we could only afford to have one person go to college at a time. We decided she would go to college first since I was already working at a decent family support job and was gaining some awesome experiences through the UAW work. I got to shake Bill Clinton's hand, appear on television, and the paper. Then we got the news that my plant was going to close.
Luckily my wife was graduating her college classes four months after I was to be laid off. Then I received some stellar news. The UAW was able to get us approved for a TAA grant for our plant. That meant that everyone at our plant had the opportunity to go to school for free. I jumped on this opportunity faster than Supersonic on Red Bull. I was able to go to school full time. I went through all the red tape that is in this program and it was worth it. I was now a student in college.
I decided on IT Programming. I was also interested in Security,Networking, and Gaming as I have been playing video games since I was two. I just thought that Programming was something I wanted to do. One goal for me is to understand the ins and outs of programming. Another goal I have is to do the best that I can. Which I will as I consider college to be my job.
Ajay M.
