• Friendly Introduction

    Hello friends! We are so happy to have you join us this summer :) This year we have over 300+ students and 50+ mentors around the world participating in this program. And the best part? You get to meet new friends and make your own coding projects!

    In the next 8 weeks, we'll be embarking on our adventure to become a Developer.

    What Makes a Developer?

    A Developer will have the technical and personal qualities that you may not typically think they would have. I know what you're thinking... Probably some computer geek staring at their screen all day - but let me redefine the what a Developer is like. You see all those student above? They are students who will be collaborating with you this summer, and they come from all backgrounds and cultures.

    1. A successful developer will always treat each other with respect and support each other.
      That is why we have built a community for you on Discord, where you can proactively interact with other students and your Mentors. If you know how to do something because you've taken a class or had previous exposure, then you can help others who are just learning the material for the first time.
    2. A smart developer will find ways to fix their "bugs" 🐞 first, then ask another person.
      Have you ever tried to push a door that said PULL? Yea, it's that feeling we get when we are coding - coding is hard man. But we want you to tackle the problem first, that means: reviewing a lesson reading, rewatching lesson videos, or searching for help online before you ask a question. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you and you don't even see it.
    3. A master developer will understand their problem before they try to code it up.
      If I told you to build a plane ✈️ and give you the parts, would you be able to do it? 99% of the time the answer is no. Where are the instructions? In our coding sessions and workshops, we will often have instructions for you. We encourage you to read it carefully and make sure you clear up any confusion you have before you tackle it.


    • What our First Week will look like...

    • Computer Science Education and Beyond

      Learning computer science isn't easy at all - but it's great that students like you get the opportunity to get exposed to CS early.

      One of our Program Mentors, Kristie Lim, shares her pathway into the world of CS when she started her college journey at UCLA. "I wasn't really confident in studying CS before college," Kristie explains. "But I participated in an introduction to web development course called Hackschool at UCLA. It was really rewarding to create my own projects." Coding doesn't have to come naturally, and it almost never does. But finding a supportive community and getting involved with extracurriculars activities allows you to explore different pathways in coding like Security, Machine Learning, and Web Design.

      After attending the course, Kristie was inspired to help others and started teaching for Hackschool. "Since the program had so much influence on me, I really wanted to give back." Kristie leads web development workshops for Hackschool for over 100+ college students at UCLA. Her favorite part about teaching is coming up with creative ways to explain concepts. She will also be teaching the 'Intro to Web Development' Lesson this week!

      Aside from teaching, Kristie also enjoys creating personal projects - In fact, this week we'll be tackling one of her personal projects, Donut Cat, which is a cat-themed website that teaches the concept of using the Inspect Tool in Chrome. She explains, "Building projects is extremely valuable. It doesn't matter how small the project is or even if you finish, as long as you keep practicing." For other advice in improving skills in web dev, she also says that "it's important to learn the basics really well because it's hard to learn more advanced concepts without the fundamentals."



    • Tool in Chrome. She explains, "Building projects is extremely valuable. It doesn't matter how small the project is or even if you finish, as long as you keep practicing. I would also say that it's important to learn the basics really well because it's hard to learn more advanced concepts without the fundamentals."

      Some advice Kristie wants to share with students involving CS extracurriculars: "It's really hard to consistently show up for meetings, so repeatedly putting yourself out there is already half the battle. It's also never too early or too late to get started, and always continuing to learn is the most important thing." Sometimes, when there's no clubs available, that means that's your opportunity to make your own club to support and share your insight with others and create your own STEM community (like STEM League😉).

    • Mentor & Student Infographics created by Program Mentor, Caroline

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