Code Like Her Fellowship, week #7
by Kritee Maharjan
As an undergraduate IT student, who is also a programming enthusiast, I was never content with just my university courses. I knew, with it alone, my programming knowledge would not go past the basic syntax and basic concept. So, I began taking courses online from different online learning platforms like Coursera, edX, youtube and made sure to partake in locally organized workshops, in a bid to better my programming knowledge and skills.
During my desperate search to satiate my thirst for learning and developing skills, I came to know about Code Like Her’ Fellowship. My expectation is that I would learn as a team, not only to build my coding and problem-solving skills, but also an interactive ability for a workspace and to work with team members. Also, as a newbie in the professional world, I wanted to hear the experiences and advice of experienced members. Now, I can say it is the best opportunity that I have ever grabbed till date and find myself fortunate to be selected.
Onto the seventh week of the three months training, we started our session on ReactJS, a Javascript library for building user interfaces. Having had fun in the past weeks (sharpening our design thinking skills, practicing HTML and CSS by building websites to doing daily mini projects in Javascript), I could not contain my excitement for this new session.
Class on React kick-started with our mentor informing us about React and its features. Here, we were introduced to new topics such as JSX(Javascript XML), virtual DOM, and injection attacks. On the first day, we started learning the basic main concepts in React. We were taught about components and props, rendering elements in DOM, states, event handling, and list using map. We also learned how to create a react app and start a new Project with Create React App, a tool that cuts down the hassle of setting up configuration so that we can get straight to developing React apps.
On the following day, we carried on with learning the main concepts. We were taught in-depth about component lifecycle methods and high order components(hoc) and were given small tasks to solidify our theoretical learning by coding. Then after we got insight on React router, a routing library used to create routing in React apps which we implemented on our own simple app by giving routes to each assignment and tasks we did in earlier days. With all the major concepts acquired, we moved towards building an application together alongside an individual project to create an application with ideas of our own.
This training is definitely changing me for the better part. Adapting different yet efficient approach of problem-solving, learning to be patient and not be at the end of the rope while debugging, organizing the cluttered workspace, from being a shy girl to being able to reach out for help, hold discussions and share thoughts. I am becoming more confident than I was before. This course has shaped me for a better future in my career.
And most important of all, I am learning to learn, which in my opinion is a strong skill you could have especially when you are in the field of ever-changing technology. I thank Code Rush for providing this wonderful opportunity and mentors for all the invaluable teachings.
About the Author
Kirtee Maharjan is a jovial second-year undergraduate student aspiring to be a programmer with a keen interest in web development. She is passionate about technologies and always on the road to learn. She is fond of reading articles, blogs on nutrition and functioning, and movement of the human body. She enjoys going on a solo peaceful ride nearby area.
