It was just two years ago that Levi Zitting started attending the Springfield Devs meetup group and landed his first technology job in 417-land. Now a developer at Hearo Technologies, which is housed in the efactory, Zitting has been a consistent volunteer and speaker at several local tech meetups. “Spending countless hours researching and putting together demos in your free time is something many people in this industry aren’t willing to do. I live for it though,” Zitting says. “I’m always looking for new opportunities to help others learn about new things.” One of the organizations he is involved with is Hack4Good, a local nonprofit that hosts an annual competition in which designers and developers build a simple solution for a community project over the course of a weekend. Last year Zitting’s team took first place. The Hack4Good community builds out the winning projects to help them get utilized by their intended user. Zitting’s team partnered with the Missouri Job Center, which helps connect job seekers with jobs in their local area. “We built an app that uses data the organization already has to better help their users find jobs closest to them,” Zitting says. Once a quarter, Hack4Good also hosts a hack night during which the community spends an evening moving the projects forward. Recently, Zitting has taken over the leadership of these meetings and also volunteered for the developer-focused Method Conference. “I have no plans of slowing down,” Zitting says. “I want to help the tech community get even bigger through continual volunteering and speaking.”
FINALISTS // Tyler Drenon • Chelsea Cardoza
