A Preview of Spring 2023 with Codebase!
Welcome everybody — we’re going to do a deep-dive into what Codebase is and talk about what we have planned for this semester!
By Claire Thibodeaux, Spring 2023 President
Hello everyone — welcome to Spring 2023!! Hopefully, everyone had a great break and is staying dry with all this rain! I personally love the Spring semester because we get to come back to campus refreshed and ready to take new classes, meet new people, and discover new communities!
For those who aren’t familiar, Berkeley has so many amazing clubs and organizations on campus where anyone can get involved and find the community (or communities) for them! There are so many different types of orgs you can join like for dance, teaching, tech, (like Codebase!) and so many more! I am going to be talking about Codebase and our community within Berkeley, but please go out and explore all the other amazing organizations that Berkeley has to offer! I believe that you can fit into so many communities and find your home in any of them– we hope you feel supported and find your true friends in college, no matter what community you join.
So… what’s Codebase?
Codebase is a UC Berkeley student community which aims to make industry experience more accessible to students, and empowers students to break into software through semesterly projects with high-growth tech companies and non-profits. We’re a tight-knit community of developers, friends, and mentors who support and uplift each other throughout the college experience.
Every semester, our members work closely with clients to flesh out end-to-end software development projects. Developers work in small groups with their project managers for 13 weeks, growing their technical skills and gaining industry exposure. Every semester we work on a range of projects in many different industries, industries decided on by the interests of our members. Last semester, we worked on projects relating to web development, virtual reality, and blockchain!
Our past non-profit clients include the Berkeley Food Pantry, CoFED (a QTBIPOC-led organization that partners with young folks of color to build food and land co-ops!), and campus orgs such as The Green Initiative Fund, and The Berkeley Project. Past industry clients include Postman, Atlassian, Ginger, Relativity Space, and a range of other small to mid-size companies which can give us a tailored and fulfilling experience.
What’s at the heart of our club? Glad you asked! We value growth, mutual learning, and uplifting each other in our passion for tech. Our culture can be drawn from our Base Behaviours:
- Put People First — Care for people within our club! This means placing mental health and well-being over getting work done, helping each other out with classes or other stressors, and just extending kindness to each other!
- Actively Take Ownership — Show initiative and pride in your work, whether it’s stepping up on your project team or creating a CodeHost (see below!) or taking up a leadership role.
- Seek Continuous Growth — Be ambitious, always willing to learn, and proactive when it comes to seeking feedback. Be inspired by the people around you!
- Communicate Candidly — Don’t be afraid to speak your thoughts; create a culture of honesty, and prepare to listen and receive others kindly.
- Genuinely Give Back — We strongly value gratitude, appreciation, and paying forward all the best experiences and opportunities afforded to you.
More than that, we focus on creating a community that is supportive and moves towards eliminating the competitive culture that is cultivated at Berkeley. We discuss topics like imposter syndrome, our social impact within the tech space, and approaching finances in our post-grad life.
Let’s Dive Deeper into Our Projects!
The largest component of being a Codebase member is working on our projects. Every semester, Codebase works with four high-growth tech companies and one non-profit organization and builds a technical product for them. Each project team, consisting of two project managers (PMs) and six developers, collaborates closely with their client company’s software engineers through 13 weeks of agile development, complete with sprints, standups, and code reviews. Throughout this process, our members are able to build their foundations in software engineering, learn the best industry practices, and work on a product with immediate feedback and users.
Because our developers are still full-time students, we always work remotely from our client, delivering two in-person presentations throughout the semester to present our progress.
We have two different types of projects:
- A Mentored Project — for those new to software engineering where we teach you full-stack fundamentals as you build a web project for a non-profit.
- A Client Project — for those with more experience through classes, side projects, self-learning, or an internship. These projects partner with industry clients and can be frontend, backend, databases, distributed systems, crypto, virtual reality… Don’t worry though, you don’t need to know the stack already — we’ll teach it to you along the way.
You can learn a little more about the requirements for which track you fall into and how to choose between the two tracks in our most recent blog post, How to Choose a Track: Mentored vs Client! In some cases, you might not have enough experience for Mentored or fall between the two, in which case we encourage you to apply anyway, and if your experiences aren’t a good fit we encourage you to apply again! Many of our members joined after applying a second time, when they were at a stage to have a better experience on our projects.
We’ll be announcing our client projects very soon so keep an eye out for updates on the specific companies and projects we’ll be working on this semester! https://codebase.berkeley.edu/projects
Beyond projects, what makes us not only a community of developers, but also friends?
While you absolutely don’t need to join a club to get a job in software and develop your experiences, the major reason a lot of students join clubs is to find friendships and a college community. We have a bunch of fun and enriching internal initiatives which comprise our Codebase experience beyond coding together:
- CodeHosts — members hosting an event to introduce their interest/hobby to the club! In the past we’ve had board game nights, bouquet-making, a charcuterie board picnic…
- CodeBits/Bigs — being paired with a member of the club who can guide you through Codebase (and honestly just be your friend.)
- A semesterly day trip — these past two semesters, we’ve gone to Six Flags and the Santa Cruz boardwalk together!
- Professional development mentorship — all new members get paired with a member or alum who might be more experienced with job/internship recruitment in various fields, grad school, teaching, research, etc. and receive weekly guidance.
- Secret Encouragers — every person in the club gets assigned a random person to “encourage”, whether it be through friendly, encouraging anonymous messages or gifts!
- CodeTalks — lightning talks on fun things just to know other club members better and learn more about each others’ passions!
- CodeGals — an affinity group for women in Codebase to bond over shared experiences and hang out every semester.
- CodePals — slowly getting to know everyone in the club by being paired with a random person to hang out with every week!
- Projects, again — while projects do involve work, a lot of your time with your project team is actually hanging out and doing fun activities (axe-throwing, hiking, baking) together!
How are we involved with the wider Berkeley community?
As a club, we try to be cognizant of our impact on the wider campus and Berkeley community, and how we can extend our resources to others. Here are just a few of our external initiatives planned for this semester:
- Professional development/recruitment workshops, open to all
- Tech talks/panels with industry speakers
- Joint events with other organizations at Berkeley, ranging from socials to professional events
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Tech roundtable
- Volunteering with the local community (we usually participate in The Berkeley Project together as a club!)
- While we don’t have the capacity and resources to offer a Mentored team experience to everyone, we have always published our mentored project curriculum for full-stack web development on our website for those looking to self-learn!
A Reflection from my Experience in Codebase
Coming to Berkeley, the only experience I had in computer science was from a Girls Who Code program and my AP Computer Science class in high school. I had no idea what a technical interview was or what a career in computer science entailed. I was extremely scared to enter CS at Berkeley, having decided to major in computer science with no friends within CS and no idea how to navigate the major at Cal.
I decided to apply to the mentored track of Codebase in my Fall semester of freshman year, not just because I wanted to learn and grow more technically, but because I was missing a support system at Berkeley. (especially from those within the CS major) I ended up getting into Codebase that semester and was shocked by how supportive people were and how excited people were to get to know me.
In Codebase, I learned about the CS industry and CS at Cal, discovering technical topics that I didn’t even know existed. I also got to meet a wide range of people, some of which have become my closest friends at Berkeley. I learned what it was like to work on a technical team and lead one, and I’ve had the opportunity to speak and work with engineers and CEOs of tech companies and non-profits. I’ve also felt less isolated and alone in experiencing imposter syndrome, learning that even people who seem outwardly successful can feel inadequate.
There are so many organizations within Berkeley, all of which can provide great technical growth and a wonderful social community. I cannot speak for all the other organizations, but I can say that personally Codebase has given so much to me and has truly changed my college experience.
Join our team!
We’re currently recruiting for both client and mentored project developers this Spring!
For our Mentored Track, we’re looking for students with little coding experience who want to learn and grow with us by developing a full-stack project to service a local non-profit.
For our Client Track, we’re looking for students who may have CS class/side project/internship experience but want to find a fun, driven community while working on an industry project together.
- Sign up here to receive updates about our info sessions, events and application deadlines: https://airtable.com/shriRw0n38U8tGbD8
- Have questions? Ask us any time on our Discord ‘table’ or come find us tabling on Sproul or the Glade!
- Visit our website to learn more: codebase.berkeley.edu/
- Follow us on Instagram and Facebook
- Submit applications on our website at: https://codebase.berkeley.edu/apply
- Deadline: January 25th, midnight! (or January 26th, 3am for buffer time)
Recruitment Timeline
Throughout the first few weeks of the semester, we’ll be hosting a wide variety of recruitment events for you to get to know our members and learn more:
Gender Minorities in Codebase Fireside Chat — hear from some gender minorities in CB and their perspectives on navigating tech, Cal, and more!
January 20th 7–8 PM • BNorth 82D • In-Person OnlyCodebase Infosession 1 — come meet us, hear about our projects, and learn about our community!
January 20th 8–10 PM • Dwinelle 145 • In-Person & ZoomCodebase Infosession 2 — exact same content as Infosession 1, for people who couldn’t make it!
January 22nd 8–10 PM • Dwinelle 145 • In-Person OnlyURM in Codebase Fireside Chat — meet some CB members from various under-represented backgrounds in tech and hear about their experiences!
January 23rd 7–8 PM • BNorth 82D • In-Person OnlyJoint Gender Minorities in Tech Panel
January 19th 5:30–7 PM • Wheeler 212 • In-Person OnlyCookies & Clubs (Joint Tech Fair) — come learn about some of the biggest tech clubs on campus, while enjoying some cookies!
January 23rd 8–10 PM • VLSB 2050 • In-Person OnlyApplication Due
January 26th @ 3AM
Apply here: bit.ly/cb-sp23-applicationTabling @ Memorial Glade or Sproul
January 17th — 25th (excl. Weekends) 9AM-4PMTabling @ Calapalooza
January 18th 11AM-2PM • Pauley BallroomDiscord Office Hours — Drop in on our Discord server at these times if you have any questions about your application!
January 23rd, 6–7PM
January 24th & 25th, 6–9PM
Discord Invite: bit.ly/cb-sp23-discord
Closing Thoughts
Hopefully, you feel like you got to know Codebase a bit more and see a glimpse into what it would look like to join our community! We are always looking for new friends that we can learn and grow together with, so we’d love for you to apply! That being said, if you don’t think Codebase is the right fit for you, there are so many other clubs and communities that I would highly encourage you to check out! Regardless of whether or not Codebase is the club for you, I am super excited for this semester and hope you all find the best community for you. ❤
