TWTW- Week 1, September 2018

Summing up of the activities of week 1 of WIT learning program and GSoC session with previous scholars, conducted by FOSSMEC.

Farha Kareem
Sep 9, 2018 · 4 min read

The week started with a good news. I was one amongst the 23 selected participants of the cohort 1 of WIT Learning Program. WIT learning program is a generic program that facilitates information and guidance on applying to Women In Tech opportunities. All the selected participants received an email from Arya Murali on 3rd September 2018 announcing the beginning of the cohort 1 chapter.

Arya Murali welcoming the Cohort 1 participants through an email.

We had regular classes going on at college. The Principal announced that mostly every alternate Saturdays will be made working since we missed classes due to the recent episode of floods :(

This week we had Deloitte coming to our college and 28 students got placed in the company.


On 6th September 2018, as part of the events conducted by FOSSMEC, we kept a session with 4 scholars of GSoC 2018 (All of them were MECians).

The highlights of the discussion are as follows:

  • Discovering how anyone even a beginner can be confident and skilled enough to apply for GSoC 2019.
  • Listening to the first hand experience of previous year scholars
  • Open Discussion- Q&A session

The event started of with me introducing the speakers and addressing the audience. Later I handed it over to Adarsh S, one of the GSoC scholars. He was energetic as always and took over the audience with his swag.

Adarsh S talking about his experience on GSoC

Saran, also a GSoC winner spoke later and shared his experience. We were so happy to see the number of people who turned up for the session.

Students listening to the previous scholars.

After the Q&A session, Jithin winded up the program by asking the students to go home and find an organisation to contribute to.


#task1

While checking my inbox on the same day, I saw an email from Arya with a very happy news! It said the top 5 performers of WIT Learning Program will receive a GHCI Student Scholarship this year.

The #task1 comes in :)

We were asked to submit a 2 minute long video, introducing ourselves. We were supposed to talk about our interests, projects, internships, volunteering work etc. The video was to be submitted before 11.59 p.m on the same day.

I also had to submit my AS lab record the next day at college. I prioritized the task and went forward to shoot the video.

After a number of attempts I went ahead and chose one before the deadline and uploaded it on You Tube.

I was asked to submit the link to my video through the rethink bot. I wasn’t satisfied with my intro. I made another video on the next day and uploaded it on my channel.

My intro video! the first shitt draft :0

I also had plans to attend the Sheroes Summit which was held at Tivandrum on 8th September 2018.Sheroes Summit is a collector platform where diverse women professionals and businesses come together with choices at the centre of it all. Unfortunately I had to call it off due to some personal reasons. Nevertheless I had my friend, Anagha at the event. She recorded the highlights of the event for me to watch it later.

Anagha sharing her experience at the event. I could make out how excited she was.

Later, on the same day I received another email from Arya, inviting us for #task2.

#task2

The #task2 was special! We were asked to do 3 things:

  1. Join the Telegram Group. We had to ping the rethink bot by typing /cohort to join the ‘WIT cohort 1’ group.
  2. Create your Personal Website: Here is the link to my personal website that I created in a day’s time. I had to subit it through the bot by typing /website.
  3. Make your TWTW sumbmission. Here is mine :). I have to submit it via the bot by typing /twtw.

Things learned out of the tasks:

  • Time management: I usually procrastinate a lot. The deadlines for each task helped me push myself and do my best in the given time.
  • Making a website in a short span of time. It’s easy. Believe me. Thanks to google sites. We require zero programming skills to make a website.
  • First experience on writing TWTW- The Week That Was. I always wanted to try this thing. WIT learning program helped me to push myself to do this. Really grateful :)

I made sure I did my tasks properly rather than rushing through the deadline to submit it for just the mere need of submitting. I hope I can stick to the same :)

I’m glad I utilised my time efficiently. Thanks to Arya and WIT Learning Program. Looking forward for more tasks in the coming weeks.

Farha Kareem

Written by

YouTuber | WIT-GHCI Scholar | GDG Cochin Speaker | Google India Builds Actions competition winner | Nielsen. Subscribe to my channel at: youtube.com/FarhaKareem

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade