{"id":1003,"date":"2017-09-04T13:11:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-04T18:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2017.dfw.wordcamp.org\/?p=1003"},"modified":"2017-09-04T13:11:44","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T18:11:44","slug":"my-wordpress-story-journalist-turned-wordpress-developer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/my-wordpress-story-journalist-turned-wordpress-developer\/","title":{"rendered":"My WordPress Story: Journalist Turned WordPress Developer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob Martella is the PR and Social Media Wrangler for this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW.<\/em><\/p>\n

I never thought I would be a WordPress developer.<\/p>\n

For the vast majority of my life, I wanted to be a journalist. A sports journalist to be more specific. I grew up loving to play sports \u2014 especially baseball \u2014 and I developed a love of writing in the fourth grade.<\/p>\n

So in high school, I joined the school newspaper covering the sports teams. At the University of Texas at Austin, I joined The Daily Texan. There I covered both golf teams, women\u2019s soccer, softball, volleyball, baseball and basketball. Then in my final semester, I became the sports editor for the paper. And in August 2016, I got to go to Rio de Janeiro to cover the summer Olympics.<\/p>\n

I ended up graduating with a journalism degree, but that\u2019s not what I\u2019ve been doing professionally. Instead, during that time there was another thing that kept trying to get my attention: web development.<\/p>\n

My introduction to WordPress came at my high school newspaper. Fascinated by the software and wanting to learn more, I started my own WordPress site \u2014 a blog that covered arena football. As my time in high school went on, I became more interested in how WordPress worked.<\/p>\n

Finally, in the summer after my high school graduation, I took the time to teach myself web development. I learned HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript and how WordPress worked. It definitely wasn\u2019t the best learning, looking back at it now, but it was a start. And by the end of the summer, I had a custom theme for my arena football blog.<\/p>\n

Eventually, my interest in arena football faded, but not my interest in web development. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I only became more intrigued by WordPress and web development. I took programming classes at UT and ended up with an Elements of Computing Certificate. And I created a theme for the WordPress theme directory.<\/p>\n

But in the summer of 2014, web development went from a hobby to a job. Through an interesting set of circumstances, Christopher Harris hired me to be a development intern at his company, Faith Growth. It was the much-needed next step, and I learned a lot about how to properly do things in WordPress and web programming.<\/p>\n

I now have a couple of more themes in the directory and a few plugins in the repository plus a premium sports plugin. I\u2019ve also created numerous websites for churches and ministries at Faith Growth. But through all of that work, I hadn\u2019t quite unlocked the true power of WordPress \u2014 the community.<\/p>\n

In September 2016, I attended my first WordCamp DFW. Although I listened to a lot great talks, my biggest lesson came with how big and how awesome the WordPress community is. With WordPress and web development, it\u2019s easy to feel like a lone wolf. I know that there are obviously online communities for WordPress, but it can be tough to feel that personal interaction online, especially for those of us who are just starting out.<\/p>\n

But that WordCamp DFW got me excited about web development. Seeing so many people using the software and being excited about it gave me energy to keep going with WordPress and opened my eyes to what I could do with it.<\/p>\n

After that experience, I became an active member of the Fort Worth WordPress Users MeetUp. There my experience with the WordPress community has only become more positive. I\u2019ve met people who are wanting to learn more about WordPress and people who are willing to teach. It\u2019s undoubtedly the best community I\u2019ve ever been a part of.<\/p>\n

This year I\u2019ll be attending WordCamp DFW as the PR and Social Media Wrangler, but I would still be attending the camp even if I wasn\u2019t one of the organizers. It\u2019s a great opportunity to see the WordPress community in action. If you\u2019ve just started with WordPress or have never gotten involved in the community before, this is the perfect opportunity to do that. And of course, if you\u2019re wanting to learn more about how to developer with WordPress, blog with WordPress or use the platform as a business, there\u2019s no better place to go than WordCamp DFW.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll be at WordCamp DFW this year. I hope to see you too!<\/p>\n

Tickets are now on sale<\/a>\u00a0for this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW held on Nov. 11-12. There are also plenty of opportunities to\u00a0sponsor the event<\/a>,\u00a0speak at the event<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0help run it<\/a>. We hope to see you there!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacob Martella is the PR and Social Media Wrangler for this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW. I never thought I would be a WordPress developer. For the vast majority of my life, I wanted to be a journalist. A sports journalist to be more specific. I grew up loving to play sports \u2014 especially baseball \u2014 and … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “My WordPress Story: Journalist Turned WordPress Developer”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8005857,"featured_media":1004,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"My WordPress Story: Journalist Turned WordPress Developer","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1140999],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wordpress-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/09\/jacob-martella-story.jpg?fit=2000%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8K1gz-gb","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1722,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wcdfw-speaker-spotlight-tanner-moushey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1003,"position":0},"title":"WCDFW Speaker Spotlight: Tanner Moushey","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"October 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Topic:\u00a0Javascript - Beyond jQuery Tanner is a web developer and entrepreneur located in the small town of Granite Falls, Wa. He\u2019s passionate about using technology to promote community. When he\u2019s not tracking down new leads or coding, he loves playing music and spending time with his wife and 5 kids.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WordCamp DFW Speakers"","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Speakers","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/tanner-moushey.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/tanner-moushey.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/tanner-moushey.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/tanner-moushey.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/tanner-moushey.jpg?fit=1200%2C720&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1363,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers-round-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":1003,"position":1},"title":"WordCamp DFW Speakers: Round Two","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"September 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"With WordCamp DFW just 47 days away, the organizing team is ready to announce the next round of speakers for this year\u2019s event. The schedule for WordCamp DFW 2017 will be released in the near future. 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In additional running numerous WordPress web sites for the library system, he custom codes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "WordCamp DFW Speakers"","block_context":{"text":"WordCamp DFW Speakers","link":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/category\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/dave-navarro.jpg?fit=1200%2C721&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/dave-navarro.jpg?fit=1200%2C721&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/dave-navarro.jpg?fit=1200%2C721&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/dave-navarro.jpg?fit=1200%2C721&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/files\/2017\/10\/dave-navarro.jpg?fit=1200%2C721&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1188,"url":"https:\/\/dfw.wordcamp.org\/2017\/wordcamp-dfw-speakers-round-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":1003,"position":3},"title":"WordCamp DFW Speakers: Round One","author":"Jacob Martella","date":"September 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"With WordCamp DFW just 52 days away, the organizing committee is ready to announce the first round of speakers for this year\u2019s event. If you still want to speak at this year\u2019s WordCamp DFW, don\u2019t worry; there\u2019s still time. You can still fill out an application here. 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