News Article

For someone who started programming before he was out of primary school, it’s no surprise Peter Walsh used the Internet to find the best school to attend for his training. Rather, what is surprising is the fact the 26-year-old St. Lawrence native first pursued an artistic career before switching to his passion of programming.
 
“Before being a web developer I was a graphic designer. Thing was though, I was always a programmer,” Peter said. “When I was about six or seven years-old I discovered computers. This was at a time before the Internet, when computers used a plain text interface.”
 
When he reached high school he met a teacher of the technology programs at St. Lawrence Academy who expanded Peter’s knowledge of the wonderful world of programming.
 
“I always had an interest in it. I started programming at around the age of eight, but I started building websites as soon as 56K dialup Internet became available to me, at which time I would have been around 13.”
 
Peter founded the St. Lawrence Robotics club and C++ programming club, won the school’s Science Fair for six straight years, and even progressed to the Canada Wide National Science Fair. However, after High School Peter obtained his diploma in Multimedia Graphic Design. He quickly realized that working as a graphic designer wasn’t for him.
 
“I switched careers because doing graphic design for (anything) I wasn’t intensely interested in just wasn’t in my character. I still do freelance graphic design. The distinction there is I can pick and choose my clients.”
 
With the decision made to return to post-secondary to pursue his passion, Peter chose College of the North Atlantic.
 
“CNA was the only reputable school in Newfoundland and Labrador that offered the Web Development program. The program was great. It gave a basic overview of all the major topics necessary for modern web development.”
 
He enrolled in the two-year online Web Development program through CNA, which allowed him to complete the program at his own pace while working full time to support himself. Once he finished in June 2013 as part of the first graduating class for the distributed (online) learning program, Peter sent out his resume and within 15 minutes had a phone call from a potential employer.
 
“It took a day. Literally,” said Peter of finding his current job. "A day after finishing the CNA Web Developer program I sent out my resume to any and all companies in Canada. Fifteen minutes after sending my resume around I got a call from Aad Vermeyden (president of Blueprint Agencies). Two days later I was offered a job, and by the end of the week I was on plane for Ontario. I spent the first month living with Aad and his family, the second month living with one of the core developers of Research In Motion’s (developers of the BlackBerry) new operating system, and after that got a studio apartment of my own."
 
Peter is still living in Paris, Ontario and working at Blueprint Agencies where he develops programming solutions as a web developer, programmer and network administrator. The company is a full-service, strategic marketing communications firm based in Southern Ontario which serves customers internationally and across Canada.
 
Peter classifies himself as a problem solver, adding it is the favourite part of his career.
 
“None of my peers have the networking, operating system or language expertise I have,” he said. “Web development, for me at least, has included not only building websites, but also coding applications. What’s interested me is the chance to solve problems.”
 
Peter plans to put those problem solving skills to good use for many years to come, in a career he is very passionate about.
 
For more information about CNA’s Web Development program, visit www.cna.nl.ca or the Distributed Learning website at http://dls.cna.nl.ca/.
 
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Media Contact:
 
Glenda McCarthy
Public Relations Specialist
College of the North Atlantic
709.643.6408
glenda.mccarthy@cna.nl.ca