#Throwback
As l was finishing up to go to bed on the 17th of December,2019, I received a text message from a friend of mine. It had been a hectic day for me. l had written two exams that day and all l wanted to do was to cuddle up in bed and sleep. I opened the text and saw a message about Hack{her} and a link to register for it. I had actually wanted to attend a Bootcamp or a hackathon that could enlighten me on JavaScript and PHP before l went home for Christmas and here was Hack{her}. It promised a fully packed three-day hackathon where l could build something real, gain advice from experts, have fun, win prizes and best of all, it was completely free. I was delighted and said l will attend no matter what.
The Bootcamp began on Thursday, 19th December 2019 at 7am. I wrote an exam from 7am to 10am. Immediately l finished, l took a bus and got to where the hackathon was being held, which was the Developers in Vogue Center. The reception was great. Security was welcoming and l went to join the program which had already commenced. As a beginner, l thought l would be lost or will not be able to understand anything. Surprisingly, l understood all that was being explained. We had an introductory talk where we were taken through basic information that will help our learning and work. We went through how to use GitHub, data types in JavaScript, databases and stack overflow. I met some amazing people there. I had the opportunity to sit by one Miss Mushraphat, whose contact l took. We had a lovely lunch after which we were assigned into teams of 3. Afterwards, we had a talk on design thinking which l will say was really impactful and refreshing. Through the 3 days, my team worked on a project which centered on helping customers and patients find drugs. During the pitching, we were given extra business advice and also help to well-structure our business plan. Hack{her} ended on Saturday, 21st December 2019.
In all, l will like to say kudos to those who organized and sponsored Hack{her}. It was a great program and an interesting way to start my Christmas. It was worthwhile my time and l am really looking forward to more opportunities from Developers in Vogue.
~ Gloria Norvor (December 2019)
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE INFLUENCE OF A HACKATHON EXPERIENCE.
When you are a lady Hack{h}er, no one can underestimate you because of the power and experience you have of being part of a Hackathon. What am i even trying to say?
I joined developers in vogue quite a long ago, even offered some of their courses online but never got the chance to go for their Bootcamps, meetings etc. all because of distance. I normally search through their programs but none of them gave me the chance.
Unfortunately, they organized a HACKATHON for three days during the December 2019 era. It was an opportunity for me to finally rep their program. The Hackathon was meant for ladies like me to ideate, build and launch anything they’ve got only if they have an idea to start a tech company. Surprisingly, some of us taught it was a Bootcamp, so we went there knowing it’s a Bootcamp but rather a hackathon. Let’s move on to the interesting part.
I was far apart from where the DIV center was but i took a bus and got there safely for the program. The first day was a shock because of the misinterpretation of the meaning of hackathon. Anyways we grouped ourselves for the competition and we started working towards it. Launch was given to us throughout the entire program and it was good. Most of us didn’t know most of the programming languages but the little we knew, we stood firm and built something for the competition. Day 2 came, and we learnt so much from how to pitch your project and ideas, design thinking gave us so much knowledge to be able to apply to our projects that we were building.
Finally, the day of joy came for us to pitch our projects. As for my group we built what we could build, and others did what their strength can let them. Some of the groups-built apps like “Tailoring app for tailors and customers app for farmers and customers house for rent and buy app courier linking services app” and many more. These were so much interesting apps but one of us was to be the winner. The winner was the “house rent and buy app “, my group “courier linking service app” took the fourth position and the other groups took the other positions. We were five groups though. We took pictures with our T-shirt that was given to us for participating and celebrated our hardwork done. This was a great experience and i hope the next hackathon is going be greater than this.
So, don’t underestimate the influence of a hackathon experience because it helps you build your portfolio, learn new technologies and land your next job.
By: Franklina Oheneba Manu
To share your ideas and suggestions, please send an email to code@developersinvogue.org