I Spent the Weekend with Giraffes, Iguanas, Wombats and Lived to Tell About It

This weekend the Chingus welcomed five new Cohorts into our growing menagerie — the Flamingos, Giraffes, Iguanas, Koalas and Wombats. Along with @kornil, @alecia, @p1xt, @rick_mcgavin, @I-emi, @agedlace, @tan, @sparta, @oxyrus, @ajibs, @gsuxlzt, @timjk, @oana, @amanfojnr, and of course @chance, it was my privilege to assist with welcoming our new Chingus.

Quite frankly I had forgotten how fun it is to participate in the start up of a new Cohort. The level of excitement new Chingus bring as well as their varied backgrounds help to make for a dynamic and motivating environment.

In the past 24 hours I’ve met some very interesting and inspiring people from around the globe:

• A German who was a practicing nurse, studied Bioinformatics, and was a Tax Officer for the government who is working hard to finish the FCC certifications as a way to jumpstart a career in game development.
• A very principled Argentinian who is freelancing. He is using this to build experience and skill in Full Stack JS and NodeJS. This team mate is passionate about building high quality solutions for customers.
• A retired Canadian who is concentrating on Python, JS, and React who is driving towards a goal of completing both the FCC Back End and Data Viz certifications this Summer.
• A Kenyan who is just starting out, but is dedicated to completing the Front End certification, and is already hard at work picking up MongoDB, NodeJS, and Express.
• A Russian with a background in law, journalism, and teaching who is an avid gamer and is close to completing the Front End certification.
• An individual currently pursuing a PhD in geophysics at Oxford who enjoys programming more so than pure science and wants to pursue a career in web development.
• An American who has experience in HTML/CSS and is excited about picking up programming skills. This person joined to get support from our community in achieving this goal.

This is just a rough sampling of our new members. There are many more and they reveal some interesting facts about us. So who are the Chingus and what are we about?

• We are diverse and represent many age groups, many continents, many races, many creeds, and many religions.
• We use our diversity to unite rather than to divide us. The different experiences and viewpoints strengthen us since they are a source for unique solutions to the problems we face.
• We have a passion for learning. Regardless of our differences, we share the desire to learn new things and to learn them well.
• We are here to gain knowledge with the help of others, but it is a two-way street. We are just as anxious to share what we know and to help our team mates.
• We like puzzles, games, and interesting problems. We view challenges as opportunities rather than deterrents.

But the most important attribute is we are a Community whose goal is to support one another on our journey to be top notch Full Stack developers. Community gives us technical depth, but also a superb support network.

Chingus have qualities that most companies can only dream of having.

Chingus have qualities that most companies can only dream of having. Furthermore, these are qualities that can’t be bought:

• Dedication to producing quality work
• Desire for continuous, lifelong learning
• Collaborative and respectful of one another
• Shared vision
• Embraces change rather than resisting it

Everyone please take this opportunity to welcome our new Cohorts and go out there and do BIG things!

What is Chingu?

Come join us at Chingu.io to get out of “Tutorial Purgatory” by joining one of our remote Voyage project teams to build apps, refine “hard” skills, and learn new “soft” skills. We help Developers bridge the gap between what they’ve learned and the skills employers are looking for.