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Summary
My name is Westley Winks. With a wide-ranging background in engineering, cross-cultural competence, coding, and personal writing, I am passionate about putting people and communities first while designing technical solutions to social problems.
Recent experience
Peace Corps
Youth Development Specialist Volunteer
September 2022 – Present
Marrakech-Safi, Morocco
- Facilitated a 2-day digital literacy for women’s economic empowerment workshop for 20 participants, developing and implementing over 4 hours of training sessions. Co-wrote and utilized funds from a $7,000 grant. Wrote project completion reports for both my team and management to communicate project takeaways clearly and effectively to different audiences.
- Utilized Python to aggregate national weather data and write an informal weather report for 40 colleagues every week. Automated the process to generate reproducible reports and visually effective charts, saving time each week. Paired with motivational content to enhance group cohesion and morale.
- Developed and delivered an interactive Python curriculum, teaching basic coding skills to 12 youth over 6 sessions. Researched and installed a local software application on all the computers because internet was unavailable. Used presentation software to create clear visual materials while demonstrating and explaining computer concepts in Arabic.
- Led a personal and professional soft skills program with a local counterpart for 31 local youth over the course of 3 months. Proactively identified culturally inappropriate lessons and modified the curriculum activities accordingly. Sessions were conducted twice a week with an average class size of 18 participants aging 18–29 years old.
- Led digital literacy sessions for 56 second chance students over a 2-day workshop. Introduced participants to topics such as online safety, misinformation, file management, and Microsoft Office.
- Created a poster and explained an organizational mission to stakeholders and management in English and Arabic. Answered questions during the presentation to clarify information.
- Wrote over 12,000 words worth of stories about Moroccan culture for an American audience and posted them on my website. Documented how I use various tools and workflows in my work and shared them with colleagues to improve their work tasks.
- Created content and visuals for three 5-minute training videos using animation and video editing software. Worked with staff to understand project requirements and expectations. Videos were used as part of training curriculum for incoming Volunteer cohorts.
- Facilitated communication between staff and Volunteers as a selected safety warden for my region. Assisted with consolidating 7 Volunteers after an earthquake hit the region by organizing and sharing information appropriately.
Testimonials
Westley you are such a gift to any organization or team. Alexis Garcia, Director of Programming and Training Peace Corps Morocco
I wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks to you Westley and the entire Multimedia Committee for the outstanding work on these videos. Your creativity, dedication, and attention to detail have truly shone through in each one of them. Houcine Lakhchach, Training Specialist Peace Corps Morocco
This is why I’m so grateful to have you on the team and that you always voice your honest opinion. You not only bring great ideas, positive energy, and different skills to the team, but some essential balance. So thank you again for all you do and for your patience. Emilie Barnes, Peace Corps Volunteer Morocco 2022–2024
Education
Oregon State University
B.S. Chemical Engineering
June 2021
Corvallis, OR
- GPA: 3.79 / 4.00
- Honors: Magna Cum Laude, Honor’s Roll, Dean’s List
- Capstone project: Pyrolysis of Hazelnut Shells
- Designed a process to create biochar from hazelnut shells and recycle the excess energy into an upstream process. Used Aspen Plus and MatLab to model energy flows in a pyrolysis process. Performed calculations by hand to sanity-check the simulation.
- Member of Engineers Without Borders Cambodia team designing a water filtration system.
Projects
pcvlink
Ruby on Rails, Sass, SQLite
July 2024 – Present
- Created an online solution for connecting members of the Peace Corps community by independently developing and launching a link-sharing platform over a summer.
Personal Website
Ruby, Sass, HTML, Markdown
December 2021 – Present
- You’re looking at it. I made all of this by hand using a static site generator and hand-rolled Sass for styling.
- I write blog posts, essays, book notes, and weekly notes summarizing my week. Code is shared publicly.
Until It's Not Fun Newsletter
Go, Python, JavaScript, Markdown
April 2022 – July 2022
- Wrote a technical article each week and sent it via email to a non-technical audience. Published 16 public posts in total.
- Coded website from scratch. Wrote scripts in Python and JavaScript to automate posting to the website and delivering the email each week. Maintained all newsletter software.
I have had the pleasure of becoming close with Westley over the last decade or so, and he is truly a high performer in all aspects of his life. His academic achievements speak for themselves, but more importantly, his service to his fellow human sets the kind of example that we should all hope to pursue. Ben McLane, US Forest Service Fire Response Captain
Featured posts
More experience
Self-employed
Data Analysis and Technical Freelancer
September 2021 – January 2022
Powell Butte, OR
- Utilized Python to aggregate data from various social media platforms, process the data, and generate interactive reports of important metrics and statistics. Shared reports with management to inform social media strategy.
- Built scripts to automate daily administrative tasks in the team’s productivity software using Python to save team time every morning.
- Wrote 43-page manual of standard operating procedures for technical tasks around a filming studio. Manual was used as a training guide for new hires.
- Recorded and edited podcast episodes and other visual content using Final Cut Pro. Videos were uploaded to organization social media channels and viewed by hundreds of people.
- Created a year-end report by using R Studio to generate plots and charts from given data. Compiled these charts with photos and copy before being given to stakeholders.
HP
Reliability Engineering Intern
June 2020 – April 2021
Corvallis, OR
- Aggregated global weather data from public databases using Python. Created a model from that data to analyze the temperature conditions that products experience during shipment to inform product testing procedures. Presented visual model results clearly and concisely.
- Designed experiments to mathematically model how printer cartridges are affected by being dropped. Performed survival analysis on results using JMP statistical software to determine how likely a cartridge is to survive being dropped. Used Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software to simulate real-world impact between two objects.
- Presented project findings to stakeholders and management at virtual project fair.
Kforce Inc.
Chemical Technician
May 2019 – May 2020
Corvallis, OR
- Performed laboratory tests on experimental printer inks. Followed standard operating procedures on lab equipment to measure physical and chemical properties. Recorded measurements and analyzed the data in MS Excel. Organized data and reports for senior staff.
- Safely and efficiently completed common laboratory tasks such as titrations, making solutions, and using glassware.
More kind words
Apart from being a great writer about his interactions in the offline world, Westley is also a kind teacher, and his submission for this month’s Carnival is a great journey into how his website was rebuilt using Astro. Thank you, Westley! Andrei, Web Designer
Westley single handedly made me feel less alone this summer with this. Sam Lacey, Peace Corps Volunteer Morocco 2022–2024, about weekly weather reports
Hey Westley! Loving Morocco so far. Have met some people from your [cohort] and I just want you to know that you are so loved and respected! Ludan Ahmed, Peace Corps Volunteer Morocco 2024–2026