My Journey: Google India Challenge Scholarship
Introduction:
I am Bhavya Arora from Delhi. Currently pursuing Computer Science Engineering from WCTM College. I love doing programming whole day without even taking any break.
Past Experience:
2017 is the year which has changed my life. This is the year i’d got into programming in January 2017, despite the fact that it was my 2nd year of college and i had only knew C language.
In January,2017. Some of my friends did a Startup Je’ Darzi and ask me join the team. So i said yes, why not.
So that was the turning point in my life, i was very excited. As everyone has their own work to do, so same with me, they gave me my responsibilities. So what’s my responsibilities?..guess…guess…
You are right. They ask me, Hey you are from Computer Science, why don’t you make a App for this startup and i said yes i will. And from then onwards i started learning Java from different platforms( Online videos, Documentations….. ). And you know what i learned many Languages and Technologies in short period of time, because i devoted my whole days doing programming and learning new things everyday, and it was fun too:)
Then after leaning Java, Android( basics) and many other things. I’d decided to up-skill myself to become a better Android Developer. Then i’d Started searching for free Android Courses. Yeah! I did found a Great platform UDACITY.
I Believe this is the best Mooc for leaning anything new in Computer Science. Doesn’t matter if it is Android Development, Machine Learning or anything else. And the great thing is that Udacity collaborated with many big giants like: Google, Facebook, Amazon. And they provide paid Nano degrees as well as free for those who can’t afford to pay.
So where were i? Yaa, then i Started learning Android basics from Udacity and learned some core concepts like: Fragments, Audio Lifecycle, Activity Lifecycle, Data storage with Content providers, Sqlite, Networking with AsyncTask, Loaders and many more.
And one day i was scrolling my Facebook feed, and i saw a article about Udacity Scholarship. And without thinking even for a second, i jumped to given link to Udacity scholarship page and filled the form. Hoping that i will get Android Basics Scholarship. And had continued with learning my Basic courses.
Finally, I was done with all the basic courses( User Interface, User Input, MultiScreen, Networking, Data Storage ). Now started learning Android Intermediate from udacity. After few days I started this course…on 7th feb 2018, I got a unexpected mail from Udacity Scholarship team….what?
Even though i already completed all my basic courses, this was too emotional moment for me, i was literally started jumping haha. And then i thought that it would be awesome if i get Developers track( Advanced one). So i wrote a mail to Udacity Scholarship team. And guess what…. they switched my Scholarship track. Thanks to Akshit Sir :)
Enough of my Past experience…..now come to my Scholarship Experience.
Scholarship Experience:
14th Feb, this was my first day with the Scholarship, So they asked me join to join Udacity Forum and Slack Community, so i did it same. First i thought there weren’t much of developers. And after joining Slack and forum i was shocked that so much of enthusiasm in a single place. Everyone was so talented and motivated, kind as well. Hence everyone is unique in their own way.
So this is the best community i’ve ever get a chance to interact with. I met so many talented Scholars who are willing to learn and devote their whole day with the community. So same goes for me, i usually stay up online whole day — resolving problems of other scholars and side by side learning my course.
And it took me 1.5 months to complete my course and side by side helping the fellow mates, and did some cool activities like: quizzes, Meetups…. so much more.
Quizzes:
Moderators of every channel did a good job of giving quizzes time to time to increase participation of every scholar in the community. So they started making quizzes for everyone. Hats off to moderators, they were hardworking and did a good job with their responsibilities. that was assigned by Akshit sir.
Meetup:
We had a channel on Slack #delhi_ncr which has every scholar who are from Delhi. So there was a guy “Rahul Malhotra” who planned a meetup of Delhi Scholars at Investopad in Hauz Khaz. This was the first time i personally met so many talented developers at a same place.
There were some scholars who also gave presentation on different topics of Android. Started from Rahul Malhotra’s introduction who organised this meetup and First presentation was from Sudhanshu — on Fragments, Second was from Praneet on Youtube Api’s, Third from Anamika on Androd Performance.
That was one of the best day. Thanks to Rahul and Investopad:)
So, now we got an interesting mail:) :)….hmm…hmm..checkout by yourself….
But but…only one scholar will get selected. Haha and i wasn’t lucky enough. That lucky guy was “Animesh Roy”. Congratulations mate:)
Projects:
Now, comes to projects. Akshit sir gave us a form to fill with our ideas. So that the team will decide and will give us real world projects to work on.
So they selected 4 Projects. And I started learning Git and Github from Udacity.Because in collaborative projects we would have to use Github. And i completed that course within 1.5 weeks. But unfortunately, I never worked on any selected project so far because my Semesters are on the door. And there were so much college work to do. So I decided to work on projects after my semester exams are over.I was very sad when i made this decision:(
Develop a passion for Learning. If you do, you’ll never cease to grow.
This is just a tip of the iceberg, there is so much to tell. But I have to stop here and Thanks Everyone in the community — Fellow mates, Moderators — Akshit sir and everyone else and the Udacity team who are managing this all.
Thank you Google and Udacity for giving us this Great opportunity to connect with likely minded peoples. I have been a part of this community and i am very happy for that. I wish this community will be like this and even get better:)
So that’s my Experience from starting to end. Thank you so much for reading this. Please clap if you liked this article. This is first time i wrote my experience.
