Max Okazaki

About Me

I'm a lifelong learner, constantly asking questions and trying to figure out the world around me. I was raised in Bangkok, Thailand, and had the great privilege of traveling and exploring the many cultures of Southeast Asia through competitive sports (basketball, football/soccer, volleyball, swimming). I moved to Portland, Oregon when I was 17, leaving behind my parents to live with my 90-yo grandmother and 19-yo brother to pursue a dream of playing basketball in college. After two socially and emotionally challenging highschool years (with lots of growth), I decided to go play Division 1 volleyball at a small school, Saint Francis University, in Loretto, Pennsylvania. I only stayed a year before transferring to Oregon State University, where I graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Business & Entrepreneurship. After graduating, I went straight into a software engineering internship that led to a job at Tektronix, Inc.. After spending a year there exploring different aspects of the company I decided to take some time away from the typical 40-hour per week job and go on an adventure. That leads us to today, where I am traveling and living in Australia for 3-months, working on a farm, and getting certified as a life coach. What's next? Stay tuned.

Growing up in Bangkok, Thailand, I had the incredible opportunities to witness a culture where family, respect, and kindness are cornerstones of the culture. This taught me to expand my definition of family and want to help support even those outside of my immediate family. I see so much potential in each person but a lack of belief (whether self-inflicted or due to systemic oppression) that holds so many of us back. I place incredible importance on showing up daily BEing and growing into the person I want to be - loving, caring, real - so that I can inspire and empower those around me to be their best selves.

Projects

1 / 3

Hidden Forest

2 / 3

Sunrise Corvallis

3 / 3

Selfless Servings

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Jan ('21) - Dec ('21)
Front End Software Engineering - Hidden Forest
Using React with Next.js, Tailwind, Apollo Client for data fetching, and Redux for state management, I helped develop the web application and dashboard for Hidden Forest, an emerging money management system.

Mar ('21) - Jun ('21)
UX Engineer - Intro to Usability Engineering @ OSU
I took on a leadership position for this 10-week 4-person group project and helped keep everything on track. I went through the entire design thinking process, starting with empathizing with the potential human that would be using the app. I also heavily contirbuted to creating and iterating on the designs in Figma, designing and conducting user tests and research, and creating reports on our findings. See the final prototype presentation here.

Nov ('20) - Jun ('21)
Site Management - Sunrise Corvallis
I helped transfer over the domain, design the site, and implement various features. This was done through Google Sites.

May ('20) - Sep ('20)
Site Management - Selfless Servings
I helped manage the site and design a database to manage the food orders for healthcare workers during COVID-19. The database had to manage various users (donators, drivers, healthcare facilities, kitchens) and tie together specific orders. This site is done through Wix.

• GitHub
• GitLab

Contact

Let's connect.

• LinkedIn
• Instagram

Elements

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    i++;
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