MY FIRST TWO WEEKS AS A CAMPUS DIRECTOR

Full Disclosure: I’ve been an employee of The Iron Yard for four months now. Maybe we’ll make a prequel out of month’s I, II, and III someday, but for now we’ll pick up the story right where it starts to get good.

I came into day one at a slight advantage, I had interviewed all of the students in the class prior to their enrolling in the cohort, and I had spent two weeks ramping up with both instructors. Everyone here has a pretty incredible backstory, everyone had overcome some adversity in life, and I knew that everyone here was more than capable of making it through the twelve weeks. Like any great story we have a pretty diverse cast of characters, former teachers, musicians, road trippers, salesmen, techies, and restauranteurs. This change hasn’t been easy on any of them, but lo and behold, if you give people the tools to succeed and help them to feel supported in their journey, amazing things will happen.

I had to stop typing this midstream to do an errand, and upon returning I saw a news alert from a Presidential candidate who went on record to say that Americans need to participate more in economic growth by working longer hours. It’s times like these that I’m so proud of the fact that we are helping to sustain a work force of developers who are engaged in what they do. We emphasize a work hard, play hard approach to your career. This builds loyalty, vocational satisfaction, and creates an environment where people want to excel. It’s nice that the measuring stick for software development revolves around how good of a job you do, not just how many hours you can squeeze into the day.

I’m incredibly grateful that we’re able to take part in making sure that having a career you believe in is accessible to all and not just a luxury provided to a few. Nothing great has ever come easy, there are moments of doubt we will constantly have to overcome as educators and as students. But we are a team and we’re now on a journey together. Nothing exists in a vacuum, as much as the students turn to us for help, we feed on their successes, fight stress with them when times get tough, and help to bear some of the weight when the burden becomes heavy. Every time we see a student helping a classmate with a problem or watch the lightbulb pop on when the material finally clicks, there is a moment that we realize something monumental is happening here.

I think we all pay a price to take part in a cohort. The battle against fatigue, for confidence, and understanding exists on all levels. Months one through three, for me, involved a lot of the theory about why and how we do what we do at The Iron Yard. The one thing I didn’t count on, is how much we rely on the students in this journey, sometimes just as much as they rely on us. We’re all building the foundation for a brighter future in Nashville, it is absolutely a noble endeavor. On a personal note, I finally know what I want to be when I grow up. I want to be right where I am, a student of change, surrounded and inspired by those who are helping to create it.