Interesting fact: Matt was born with too many teeth, and had to have 14 pulled by the age of 12!
Joining the Free The Children team in 2009, Matt Seburn brings with him a passion for software design and development. He earned his bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Waterloo in 2002 and-unsure if he wanted to pursue his major as a career or his other passion, teaching-simply did it all for a while, before coming to the conclusion that writing code was where his true passion was to be found.
Matt volunteered his time as a math and ESL tutor with immigrant children, youth and adults through Community Matters Toronto, and as a math and science tutor in the Toronto District School Board's Triangle Program. Through these experiences, he learned first-hand of the many challenges new Canadians face, and of the importance of embracing the diversity found within the spectrum of human experience. During this time, Matt paid the bills by working in customer service, technical support and did some tutoring on the side, enjoying his unique mix of technical and people skills. Once Matt realized where his true calling laid, he jumped into it headfirst and, seeing the future potential for web applications, learned a staggering amount about web development in a short period of time.
Matt's future goals involve more web development, either freelance or for a small Linux-based shop, and getting back into software engineering-perhaps even low-level work like device driver development. His loftier goals include Linux kernel development and contributing to the Debian Project. Matt believes a full life includes a few healthy obsessions, and his include the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, tinkering with his computer and mathematics. He also has an appreciation of music-his favourite styles being metal, hip hop, jazz and popular music of the '40s.