Jonathan Norstrom
After graduation Jonathan Norstrom ’15 moved to Chicago after a few months of living in Palo Alto, CA.
Once he got to Chicago, he learned about web development and is now the lead developer for two projects.
Norstrom transferred from the University of Cincinnati during the holiday break of his freshman year for the Psychology and Sociology-Criminology programs in the College of Arts & Sciences at Ohio University—and because he already had several friends here.
He made more friends that he still sees regularly and says “that has to be the best part” his time at OHIO and that since graduation he has visited a few times and it always feels like home, “Every time.”
One Big Puzzle
Norstrom works part time at a company called Cultural Media in Chicago as the lead developer for one of their projects and spends the rest of his work time on freelance jobs. He really enjoys being able to work on these projects remotely, so he has no trouble keeping up with them while making frequent trips to visit family in Ohio and to Louisville, Kentucky, to hang out with his college roommate.
“Web development wasn’t really ever on my radar in any serious capacity. I took a free online course in college but got tired of it after about a week and never really touched it again.
“I love what I do because application programming is just one big puzzle, and who doesn’t like a good puzzle?”
His Transition to Software
After graduation he had a job working as a behavioral therapist for children with ADHD, ODD (oppositional defiance disorder), and/or autism. He says it was “fulfilling and great,” but he realized that if he wanted to do more than work with children all day, he needed a master’s degree.
He did not want to do that and at the same time thought that there had to be a better way to collect and handle the data and research. Norstrom decided that he could learn how to write software programs to develop a system to give behavioral therapy researchers help in increasing efficiency and accuracy.
“This way I could help many more kids instead of the dozen that I was currently helping. So I dropped therapy and learned how to program.”
In addition to his mix of development work, Norstrom enjoys mentoring people who are trying to pick up web development basics – through a company called Codecademy.
He says the biggest challenge has been overcoming his tendency to look for something new and different once he feels comfortable.
“Deciding to stay in Chicago and really devote the time and effort necessary to learning web development took a lot of self-control.”
His goal is to get back to his original idea and work on projects to help mental/behavioral disabilities research and therapy, but for now is enjoying his learning curve, his projects, and the flexibility of his current arrangement.
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