withever
about elle
Elle was born in September 1978 in Metro Manila, the Philippines. She’s pretty sure it was a Saturday.
As a child, she loved Keroppi, her Barbie dolls, and taho, a Filipino delicacy. She took piano lessons and was a pink tulip in her kindergarten production of “Thumbelina.”
In seventh grade, Elle wrote her first newspaper article (never mind that it was a class assignment). She was quickly promoted to copy editor, spending her free time in between classes wielding her Red Pen of Doom™ before deciding that journalism would remain strictly a hobby for her. She instead focused on her music, and while attending Valley Grande Academy, she participated in choir and band, as well as competing in regional and statewide music competitions. She credits her many piano teachers for developing the talents that won her a music scholarship to university.
In 1997 Elle headed off to Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee, majoring in business administration and minoring in music performance. Again finding herself involved with student journalism, she first put the campus newspaper online, and it was this work that got her noticed by a Silicon Valley dot-com. Despite years of business classes, she chose to keep working for various Web development ventures out of an interest in technology.
Not satisfied with the direction her studies were taking, Elle packed up and moved all of five miles down the road to downtown Chattanooga. Within a month she landed a job that got her started in what would be her future career field—instructional design and development. She, however, continued to wield her copy-editor’s pen, eventually working as a freelance journalist specializing in technology. Three articles later, she met Jonathan.
When Jonathan secured a science policy position at the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, Elle jumped at the chance to move to the DC metro area. She is currently in the process of establishing a branch of her e-learning and training consultancy in Washington, DC. At times it may be wearying, but the opportunities are excellent, the work environment is never dull, and her income allows her to support their three cats in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed.
In her free time, Elle devours shelter magazines and plots the next mid-century modern piece with which to decorate their rowhouse in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington, DC. After multiple attempts, she can now make pancit that tastes almost as good as her mother’s. She even learned how to drive a stickshift, and happily takes her little convertible to work every day. Her best friend still says she needs to have another color in her closet besides black. And she never did teach the cats to fetch.
You can follow Elle’s goings-on at her blog.