Google India Challenge Scholarship : Excitement, Experience and much more
I am Pramod Bharti from Bodhgaya, India. Currently, I am a scholar of Google India Challenge Scholarship for Android Developer track. It’s going to be one and half month(50% journey), and here I am sharing my experience so far with this scholarship program.
Excitement
After completing all Android Basics course I applied for Google India Challenge Scholarship in November 2017 last week. During basics course I learned a lot about Android Development and build some awesome apps like Miwok, QuakeReport, Pets and few more. I waited for results!
I remember it was 7th Feb 8:30 in the morning I got the email from Udacity. I opened it and saw the word “Congratulations” in bold letter. This is the same word I was expecting since November. There was also a scholarship badge. I downloaded it and posted it to my social profiles with the hash tag #GoogleUdacityScholar 😃. There was also mentioned that the course will begin on 14th Feb. I was very excited to join the course.
Experience
On 14th Feb in the morning I got another email from Udacity to join slack workspace. Course started and after continuing about one week with lessons an announcement made by Akshit sir for moderator selection for each channel in the workspace. So, I filled the form and applied for three channels (#beginner_queries, #lesson02_projsunshine and #lesson03_internet) and got selected for my favourite channel #lesson03_internet. Well, three is my lucky number and yeah Internet exist that’s why I am here 😊. Thanks to the inventor of Internet. Guess what? I am moderating Internet (kidding! 😂). I have been given some tasks like helping scholars in the allotted channel, creating quizzes, noticing activities of other scholars. As a scholar I also have to be active in slack workspace and forums.
After continuing with lessons about a week I created first quiz in the slack workspace via Google form and posted link in the allotted channel and got awesome responses by scholars. I created a comments section in the quiz so that I can get feedback. Got positive responses.
In the slack workspace there are many channels have been created as per the requirements. There are separate channels for each lesson where scholars can clear their doubts. Here is the screenshot of workspace. Yeah that’s the reminder post I have posted recently for quiz 2 of lesson 3 😇.
As a scholar I have to be active in the forums too. In the forums anyone can ask question and create topic. There are many professional developers who are willing to help. I too have created many topics and posted answers to the query in the forums.We will be getting feedbacks from mentors also in forums. I visit daily in the forum and see what important discussions are going on. The post’s quality matters not quantity so I always keep that in mind while posting. Here is the screenshot of my summary looks like until now.
It’s gonna to be one and half month of this 3 month challenge scholarship journey. By now I have completed all the lessons and will contribute more in the forums and slack channels. Also will create more conceptual quiz for scholars so that they can enjoy more in the community. I am also participating in other moderator’s quiz. 😇
One of the best thing I liked about this scholarship program is that the scholars of different states learning together in the same platform and sharing ideas to build better Android apps for the community. Scholars are also building a better professional network by connecting each others.
Course content
No doubt, this is one of the best course available online for Android Developer. Mentors are from Google. Course content is awesome with rich UI/UX. I was familiar with many concepts about course material here so I haven’t faced too much issues during this challenge course. Thanks to the Android Basic course. A highly recommended for Android beginner. Here is the quiz explanation after submitting successfully.
Official support in slack
Well, in the slack workspace for our general query and technical query there is always two official person available for us. Akshit(@akshit.udacity) sir is for important announcement and general query. Iip(@iip.udacity) sir is for our technical query. Here is the screenshot of recently announcement made by Akshit sir. Those emojis haha😃😍. Surprise? Which surprise is sir talking about?
Surprise
Well, the surprise is something no one expected before. That is Ticket to Google I/O 2018 Contest. Yeah you read it right. For me it’s Ticket to Dream 😊. Currently we have a contest going on for Google I/O 2018 trip. This is what they quoted in contest.
Hi there,
Being a Google Udacity scholar has its own perks. You get a chance to upskill yourselves, interact with passionate technologist and be a part of the world-renowned scholarship program. If that’s not enough, here’s more…
Participate in Google India Scholarship I/O18 Contest and get a chance to win a fully funded trip to Google #IO18!*
So, my experience until now with this Google India Challenge Scholarship program is one of the best learning experience in my whole life. The community is awesome. Everyone is helping each other. There are also other activities going on like project collaboration, local meetups, online meetups. Scholars are also building a better professional network by connecting each others.
I am trying my best to perform better in every aspect as a moderator as well as scholar. I hope I will be selected for phase 2 of this world-renowned scholarship program and will learn a lot of things from community and also will contribute to the community.
Update 14/05/2018:
Today is the last day of this challenge scholarship, so here are remaining 50% journey in short.
#IO18 Results
After applying Google IO contest I got this email in my inbox on 2nd April.
Yeah I was one of the Waitlist Participant in #IO18 contest. Original winner was Animesh Roy. But due to some reason like passport and visa no one went there from our track😢. Later we discussed in slack that we will create our own IO … hahaha😉 😅.
Zoom session initiative
In our track four collaborative project started after 20th April. So, I requested Akshit sir to can we do zoom session to understand projects in a better way. He appreciated initiative and allowed me to do this. We did tens of zoom session discussion and it was truly amazing.
Feedback
As I was one of the moderator I released a Google form for feedback and people appreciated zoom session initiative and gave me awesome feedback.
So, this is the complete journey of 3 months in this Scholarship program. Met some awesome people, learned from them, will surely miss all of them. 😢
I want to say thanks to Google and Udacity, Udacity India for giving me this opportunity.
Thank you 🙏.
This is my first post on Medium. Claps 👏 and encouragement would be appreciated! Thank you 😃!
