My Journey at the Apple Developer Academy. From Dubai to Napoli.

Culture

Before diving in to my learning experience at the academy I want to a give brief introduction on my background. I am an Australian Citizen with an iraqi background and I live in Dubai, UAE. I went to high school in Dubai, moved back to Sydney for University to obtain a degree in Economics, and then back to Dubai again for work and family. With that in mind, I felt prepared to experience a new city and learn something new. I moved to Napoli for the Apple Academy. The people I met during this experience were all so geniune, helpful and respectful. It was great to learn about the italian culture and experience it while taking on a great opportunity. It was a huge change from the fast paced city environment that I was used to. I loved the change and I would reccomend this important experience to anyone. And I say this to everyone I speak to: the food is amazing.

The Academy

When joining the academy, I believed my goal was to gain knowledge on coding and design however throughout the duration of my time I was faced with challenges which enabled me to develop my project manager skills while continuing to learn collaboratively with my teammates.

What I love about the academy is the challenge based learning and the collaborative environment. Instead of traditional study and testing you are given a challenge, a team and all the supplies and resources needed to achieve your goal. This was a refreshing environment to be in, it took away the pressure of a testing environment and instead you are able to learn, challenge yourself, and create your own milestones with no limitations to what you could create. I really enjoyed working in teams, where each member had their own set of specialised skills, knowledge and input that would make a project come to life. I enjoyed the opportunity to be a part of a collaborative environment with workshops, inspirational talks and mentors all in one place.

My First Achievement

I enjoyed working on my first app I worked on with my team we created an educational app for kids. It was interesting to learn about the technology we could use to create something safe for children. My responsibility was to manage the team, create presentations and present our work to the academy. Throughout this process I was able to work with the designers on UI/UX while simultaneously communicating with the coders to see where improvements could be made. I thoroughly enjoyed coordinating with my team members and admired each of them for the work we were able to deliver on our first app project.

Inspirational Talks

The inspirational talk that stood out to me the most was by the creator of marvel app. It was inspiring to see that they had started from really simple apps and eventually built up to the marvel app they have today. I was also inspired by the marketing tactics and having an interesting 404 error page. It is the type of mind set needed to recognise trends and how to take advantage of them to strategise within your own company.

The next talk I found inspirational was the talk by the creators of Bear app. I think what struck me the most was that they had started developing apps by self learning together and eventually getting to where they are today. I think it is reminiscent of our academy experience where we take on a challenge to create something and learn along the way.

End of Academy

I am grateful for my time at the academy as it gave me a platform to enhance my organisational skills, act as a manager during challenges, ensure successful delivery of projects and interact with likeminded individuals from all over the world. It is a shame I was not able to spend the entire year in the academy but I am so impressed by how much effort was put into allowing us to complete our year during quarantine.

In the academy I was able to learn how to innovate a new product, design, coding, built on my business skills and the value of teamwork. It has opened up my mind to new possibilites and built on my work ethic. I look forward to taking on opportunities to develop innovative solutions in the future.