Michael Hostad is a retired IT professional that has used his coding work for some pretty amazing community projects. Michael began building websites at age 14, posting clips from The Simpson for fun. After college, he worked for a financial company, building websites. After realizing this didn't bring him a lot of intrinsic joy, he took an IT position at UW-Milwaukee. This position grew and grew as he said yes and fast forward, he ends up working for a large nonprofit in Milwaukee and then starting a non-profit called The Commons, a free accelerator for students to bring students together across Southeast WI to learn the entrepreneurial mindset, why failure is important, and creative problem-solving. During this time, Michael started a passion project called Light The Hoan. The Hoan Bridge is the Golden Gate of Milwaukee. Michael has worked for 4.5 years on this project with his partner Ian, and at the end of August, the west side will be lit! To top it off, Michael comes full circle in building a coding curriculum for students to program different light patterns so they, too, can Light The Hoan. Michael is a strong advocate of the community and Milwaukee.