Meet the Mentors (Q & A)!

By Jessica Dassanayake

Sudo Labs
Sudo Labs
Jul 25, 2017 · 5 min read

The Sudo mentors are a vital part of the community, and are always there to provide support and feedback to workshop attendees. We had a Q & A session with a few of our valuable mentors (some that have actually taught workshops too!) so that you can get to know them better!

Robert Cooper mentoring at a Wordpress workshop

Robert Cooper

  • Tell us a bit about you and what you are passionate about!

I work as a web developer for BentoSMB and I am passionate about constantly keeping up to date on the latest web development trends and helping other businesses have a great online presence.

  • Why did you choose to become a Sudo mentor?

I first decided to mentor for Sudo in order to help reinforce my basic understanding of programming concepts by helping others learn the language. I also want to create a more active developer community in Kingston.

  • What advice would you offer to new programmers joining the Sudo community?

Get your hands dirty with small pet projects. Create simple programs and keep an online portfolio of your work. Become immerse in the online developer community by contributing to GitHub projects, following and interacting with other developers on Twitter and take online programming courses through sites like Treehouse or Udemy.

  • Who is your STEM role model?

Elon Musk because he works hard and is always thinking one step ahead.

  • What workshops have you mentored/ will be mentoring for?

I’ve mentored at 2 HTML workshops, 1 JavaScript workshop, and 1 WordPress workshop with Sudo.

Jeff Stafford teaching an Intro to Python workshop

Jeff Stafford

  • Tell us a bit about you and what you are passionate about!

I work as a bioinformatician/Linux sysadmin for Queen’s University. I really like biking around the Kingston area, and have built up an unhealthy dependence on tea. I tend to have a new hobby every week… I probably need to pick up one and just stick with it.

  • Why did you choose to become a Sudo mentor?

Honestly, I just like programming and teaching programming. I’m hoping to brainwash more people into liking programming. Volunteering with Sudo seemed like fun!

  • What advice would you offer to new programmers joining the Sudo community?

Pick a project and just do it. Find something that you’ve always been super frustrated about with your computer and write a program to fix it. Make a website and host it on Amazon. Build a computer. Going to workshops is a great way of learning the basics, but the only way to actually do stuff is to try things at home. If you’ve got an hour or three of free time some afternoon, it might be fun to think of a project and get started!

(also, google everything.)

  • Who is your STEM role model?

Hadley Wickham is the single most productive human alive. The guy has written what seems like 99 percent of the modern R language and it’s pretty much impossible to do anything without using something he’s written to or contributed in some way. I bumped into him on Reddit once and had a nice chat about tbl_df’s, which was really cool.

  • What workshops have you mentored/ will be mentoring for?

I’ve taught an “Intro to Python” workshop and volunteered at two others on basic web design and Python (again). I’ll be teaching workshop on R and data analysis late next month, so stay tuned!

Annabel Kramer mentoring at a Creative Computing workshop

Annabel Kramer

  • Tell us a bit about you and what you are passionate about!

I’m a fourth year student at University of Edinburgh studying Cognitive Science. What originally drew me to this degree was that it allows you to learn technical skills (e.g. programming, maths) with a focus on solving real life, human problems. I’ve most enjoyed classes in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and I’m really excited to use these ever-improving techniques to build things that have a positive impact on society. I’m currently working as a Data Scientist at snap40 — a health tech startup in Edinburgh — and a lot of my work involves collecting and analysing data from human trials that we’ve run in order to better inform our health analysis platform.

  • Why did you choose to become a Sudo mentor?

I got involved with Sudo at the beginning of my exchange year at Queen’s University in September 2016 originally as a Workshops Developer where I could influence the workshop development process right from the beginning. I really loved seeing feedback on the workshops we’d produced — it’s an amazing feeling when something you’ve created has enabled someone else to learn and grow their knowledge! I wanted to get some more hands on experience with the participants themselves so I volunteered time as a mentor during our workshops as well and never regretted a second!

  • What advice would you offer to new programmers joining the Sudo community?

Very cliche but no question is a silly one — all our mentors and instructors began programming at some point too and you’re also helping us consolidate our knowledge by asking things we wouldn’t have even thought of! I’ve definitely had questions that made me think deeper about the problem and work with the participant to answer- as mentors and volunteers we are here for you but you also bring something so valuable to the community!

  • Who is your STEM role model?

I don’t think I have one person I look up to — what inspires me is seeing thousands of female and minority programmers go out to work every day while facing discrimination and doubt, and succeed in so many ways. I follow a number of initiatives to inspire women to learn to program and join the STEM industry (Women Who Code, Code First: Girls, Sudo ;) ) and am grateful every day that I’ve had the opportunities to get where I am today.

  • What workshops have you mentored/ will be mentoring for?

Unfortunately I moved back to the UK in May so I won’t be mentoring any further workshops :( I was also travelling a fair amount so I missed several of our workshops. I mentored our Wordpress workshop and our Creative Computing in Python workshop. If I were still in Kingston I would be there every workshop!

Shane Kennedy

  • Tell us a bit about you and what you are passionate about!

I’m a full stack developer and I’m passionate about breaking down the barrier to entry of intimidating fields of work (finance, programming).

  • Why did you choose to become a Sudo mentor?

I chose to become a Sudo mentor because I won’t stand for the ‘bro culture’ in the field of engineering and computer science that we’ve seen in the past.

  • What advice would you offer to new programmers joining the Sudo community?

Go in with an open mind, forget everything you’ve ever been told about programming and just focus on learning (but have fun with it!)

  • What workshops have you mentored/ will be mentoring for?

I will be volunteering in the Intro/Advanced Web Development, Intro to Computer Science, and Wordpress workshops.

Sudo Labs

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Sudo Labs

Sudo is a Kingston-based nonprofit organization with the mission to create a community where women can learn to code together.

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