My first encounter with Answers in Genesis was in grade school, sometime around 1990. My small Christian school took a field trip to Denver for a conference put on by AiG. It was a delight to hear Ken Ham rattle off, “millions of dead things laid down in rock layers buried by water all over the earth” at lightning-quick speed, and the t-shirt proclaiming the platypus “a big problem for evolutionists” became one of my favorites. Needless to say, I’ve long been captivated by apologetics, defending the authority of Scripture, and Creation science specifically.

Not long afterwards, my love for movies and computers grew into a fascination with visual effects and 3D graphics. Breakthroughs like Jurassic Park absolutely blew my mind. In high school, I dug into what limited possibilities were available in the late 90s on a teenager’s budget. Around 2005, I discovered Blender and was thrilled at how capable it was. Workflows and techniques previously only available on studio budgets were suddenly open to me. I incorporated this new power tool in every personal and professional project I could, and soaked up every new release as Blender marched relentlessly to the workhorse it is today.

About a month ago, I paused a YouTube video about upcoming expansions at the Ark Encounter. The screen behind one of the designers jumped out at me. “That’s Blender!” I’m pretty sure I said it out loud. My heart raced. How cool would it be to contribute to AiG? Was there something I could help with? In what I can only see as God’s timing, a couple weeks after that my parents invited me on a trip to Kentucky. I met Jonathan Taylor at the Ark, who confirmed the timing was perfect as AiG is hiring 3D artists for the Jerusalem diorama, and encouraged me to apply.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my background and work. It would truly be an honor to combine my lifelong passions for apologetics and 3D design to help an organization I greatly admire spread the Gospel!