My newbie coding journey...back from a nice long hiatus!

I started back in March, midway through the current cohort and maaaan has it been quite the journey! I've worked tirelessly to manage the many facets of what makes the program run and function. From providing practical guidance to the cohort of apprentices or providing emotional support to them on any given day, setting up and organizing workshops, corresponding with companies and volunteers who would like to support the program, creating docs, updating the program website, emceeing program events, creating code challenges and much more are things that I've done day to day since March. This role has stretched me and forced me to level up and rise yet another step out of my comfort zone.

[Standing with my mellow-yellow twin after a hard day of work]

My fear of public speaking has improved tremendously and I'm doing better in this role than I imagined I could based on the job description. At times we tend to doubt our own capabilities before fully giving ourselves the chance to prove ourselves. I'm just grateful for the opportunity to be able to prove my own internal doubts wrong.

So the current cohort have been placed with sponsor companies and are set to begin their internships soon. Wednesday was their graduation, they shared their personal pitches and demoed their final projects - they did an amazing job! I'm so proud of them and all the progress they've made, it seems like just yesterday that I was giving them a pep talk during their launch celebration. I've gotten to laugh with these women, cry with these women and really connect with them in ways that have been helpful for them as well as for myself.

[The current cohort slaying their final photo shoot!]

[Making silly faces with my ladies!]

Today is the final day of the current cohort, but we'll be back at it starting July 8, with an even bigger cohort than ever before - the next cohort will consist of 17 apprentices! I'm excited for this next cohort, not only was I there from the start of this application process and very active in the selection process, I get to journey with them from start to end. This cohort will be the largest and most overall advanced cohort the program has seen so far. The majority of the apprentices are coming in with some programming experience, there are only three that are coming in as total beginners. Stay tuned, I'll be sharing more updates once the program starts.

[posing with the Techtonica apprentices and Founder, Michelle Glauser]

This experience is a two-fold blessing...it gives me as a beginner the space and environment to continue learning and improving in terms of my coding skills. it also gives me the opportunity to learn more of what it takes to take on a program management position. It has me more interested in learning how similar product or project management is, and if I'd enjoy it. I know one thing, I'm definitely enjoying the role I'm in now. so thankful and can't wait to share more with y'all!

[Happy Hacking!]

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