Lorene’s began in Amarillo, where she grew up. She still considers it home. She met her husband while both attended college in Clarendon, a panhandle town of about 3000. His military career took them out of the area, of course, and they eventually made their way here. They settled in Castroville after looking for two to three years for that perfect piece of land in this area.

It's not much of a commute from home in Castroville to the beautifully landscaped campus of World Savings Association off Highway 151, where Lorene works as a Technical Analyst in their Loan Service Department. Although she had been a data enterer for other employers in the past, her work with World Savings over the past four years brought her much closer to the wonderful world of databases, Access software and the Numero Uno project she's currently involved with there: Computer Telephony Integration, scheduled for deployment in the first quarter of 2001. Intrigued by the possibilities, Lorene continues to pursue her interest in these areas of computing.

Much of her learning has taken place outside of a formal classroom setting. She is now on the path leading to the professional designation of MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer). Those of our audience who are already participating in this program or are thinking about it know that it is an intensive course of study with the requirement of passing three core exams and one elective exam. Think of it — loosely — as akin to the CPA or CLU series of examinations for professional certification. The core technology exams require candidates to prove their competency with solution architecture, desktop application and distributed applications development. The elective exam require proof of expertise with Microsoft development tools.

To this end, Lorene attends the Visual Basic SIG on Sunday afternoons. That led to her volunteering as a study group leader for APCO members working toward the MCSD designation. Anyone interested in taking this journey can talk to Lorene about meeting times; here contact numbers are listed in the SIG section of each issue of PC Alamode.

Outside of the world of electronics, Lorene and her husband are owned by three boxers — the non-sparring kind with four long legs and beautiful bods (two faun and one brindle). A nice diversion from all that studying, right?