Two years ago I was interning at Nittany Laser Technologies. They’re a great team doing impressive work, but their website didn’t show that. It was outdated, slow, and didn’t match the quality of their products or people. I remember thinking that if I ever learned how to code, I’d come back to fix it.

This past summer, I finally did. After some guidance from my professor Brad Groznik, and a few key conversations with Kartikey Pandey and Bien Concepcion, I realized I could teach myself how to build websites using AI tools. That sent me down a long path of experimentation: breaking things, asking a lot of questions, and building small projects like TheSnackScout.com.

Once I felt confident, I reached back out to my old boss and offered to rebuild their website from scratch. He agreed.

It’s the first time I’ve ever been paid for web development, and the process taught me more than any class or tutorial could have. From communicating with a client to structuring a full production site, this project was a hands-on education in how professional web work actually happens.