Not Ready For Retirement | Graduate Spotlight

After 10 years in Parish ministry and 23 years as an Air Force chaplain, Kevin Lockett of Web Development Cohort 52 retired and moved from D.C. to the hills of Tennessee. “I decided I wasn’t ready for the rocking chair yet,” he shares in his podcast. When the Air Force sent Kevin to study information technology for a year, he discovered a passion for tech and most importantly, coding! “So now I'm off my rocker,” he laughs. “I'm pursuing a new passion of coding and web development. Except when my sweet new granddaughter Olivia comes to visit. Then it's back to the rocker. Some say I rock.” 

What was your favorite part of your NSS experience?

“I loved the fact that people from various experiences, stages in life, and so many other differences came together to form a cohesive group and worked and learned so effectively together. All my education and experience -- a bachelor's degree and three masters -- I have never had fun doing a group project until this course. At NSS, regardless of prior experience or knowledge, everyone was there to learn and everyone was there to push themselves to the finish, all the while refusing to leave a teammate behind. It was a learning and working community at its finest!”

What was your favorite capstone project and what about it made it your favorite?

“I enjoyed the challenges of both capstones, but the second, ‘Whistler,’ was my favorite. I enjoyed creating my first full-stack project start-to-finish, from connect to conclusion. It was a challenge using Python and Django on the server side to present data to the user. I used both Postman and Swagger, a tool introduced to us in our last group project, to test my views and serializers to ensure I was passing the correct data to the client side. On the front end it was fun working in a little more familiar territory with JavaScript and ReactJS for the User Interface, having used similar code in the first capstone. I also worked harder with basic CSS from the beginning with this project to ensure the end product would be responsive on any screen size. In the end, I didn't get as far as I wanted to in the time limited to working on the project, but I reached the goal of a minimally viable product (MVP) and completed a couple of my stretch goals. I hope to continue working on the project in order to keep stretching myself and keep learning. I couldn't have imagined doing this project six months ago when we began the course. I hope six months from now I can say the same about the progress I have continued to make.”

What advice would you give to current or incoming NSS Web Development students? 

“Come ready to learn from failure and don't be afraid to ask questions!”

HIRE KEVIN

Since acquiring his new skills in full-stack development, Kevin is ready for his first job as a web developer! Connect with Kevin on his LinkedIn profile and get to know more about his background experience and capstone projects when you listen to his podcast below! 

Meet more of the graduates from Web Development Cohort C52  by visiting their class website!