My Story as a Google DSC Lead
Hi there,
My name is Berkin Yılmaz and I am a leader of the Google Developer Student Club Çankaya University in Turkey. In this writing, unconventionally, I won’t mention a technical topic. This is not about Material Design, Flutter, etc.
This is a summary of a whole year as a leader and I would like to share my knowledge, experience, and suggestions with you. Thus, many people may influence by this writing, take courage and change something in their lives and the other people which live around them.
“Therefore, Let’s Begin!”
Table of Content
- What is Google Developer Student Clubs?
- How can I apply to GDSC Leadership?
- Should I be an Engineer or Developer to be a Leader or may I come from other backgrounds too?
- Should I apply to Leadership, What are the Cons and Pros?
- What is the pathway for being a GDSC Lead?
- Well, I am a Leader, What’s the next move?
- And… My Journey
- Summary
What is Google Developer Student Clubs?
Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) is a university-based student community organization that promotes and develops Google technology while also providing peer-to-peer learning.
Students from any undergraduate or graduate program who want to advance their careers as developers are welcome.
By participating in a GDSC, students can expand their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning setting while also developing solutions for the SDGs.
How can I apply to GDSC Leadership?
Every year for a limited time, applications are going to open. Date is changing due to the regions. For detailed information about these dates, check the website of GDSC. Also, I am going to share the deadlines in any condition.
Should I be an Engineer or Developer to be a Leader or may I come from other backgrounds too?
Absolutely, NO!
The door is wide open if you want to learn, grow, and develop in this group. Every student, regardless of their background, is welcome. So don’t be concerned about your major!
Should I apply to Leadership, What are the Cons and Pros?
There are disadvantages and advantages to this program, just as there are to many other things in life, but in my opinion, it is well worth it to be a part of it..
Pros
- Networking opportunity with people who loves to share their knowledge with other people as a volunteer and meeting with many people from business life
- Another advantage of this program is the chance for peer-to-peer learning. While taking an active role in GDSC, students can teach and learn among themselves. These are pieces of training which gave by the GDSC Çankaya Core Team.
- Taking Mentorship from Experts is another plus of this program. There are many valuable people in Google Communities and learning from them is really precious💙
- Increasing Teamwork skills through working in a team. At the same time, your Leadership and Presentation skills will improve too. So, if you’re an introvert, let’s talk about it after leadership.
- Swag Kits and gifts due to your effort in Google Community are triggers you positively because I think this is totally pushing up your motivation. While joining Hackathons, Game Jams, and Organizing Events, you can earn so many gifts or maybe even money prizes.
Cons
- This is a Leadership that requires you to devote your time and take a lot of responsibility. While doing that, you may feel stressed, under pressure, or burned out. Still, it’s all up to you; if you manage your time well, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to handle it.
What is the pathway for being a GDSC Lead?
If you wish for being a leader, firstly, I suggest you gain an experience at GDSC or other student societies. A leader must be able to organize events, manage a team, and collaborate with others.
At GDSC, the best way, take an active role in any GDSC Core Team. In this way, the leader in your university may give you a reference code if he/she believes you about leadership.
Second, practice and improve your English! The entire application process is in English but also, Google shares some documents and global networking events among Leaders. Therefore, without English, it is a kinda inefficient program.
Third, be Ethic! Actually, this is the main rule. You have to be ethical and equal to every person you have ever met as a leader. Because you have a responsibility to others and protect their right as much as yours. Therefore, do not shut your eyes to any unjustness.
Finally, be a better version of yourself than you were yesterday! Leaders have a special power. They can reach so many people and influence them. You can get in touch and teach many people. While teaching yourself, you also affect other people too. So, you have to grow as the mind and this is not an option, a must.
Well, I am a Leader, What’s the next move?
Congratulations, You are in the air!
The first thing you should do is celebrate 🤣 and after that plan your Core Team and give them responsibilities due to their interests. This is really crucial because unless you did not do that, things might go wrong and responsibilities pile up on you. For this reason, appoint your Core Teams due to their specific roles, and Be A LEADER, Don’t Be A BOSS!
And... My Journey
Last year, I was in the Graphic Design Team in Core Team. At that time, I produced social media posts and banners for the community. Also, I was doing something else instead of GDSC. Therefore, I was indecisive to apply for GDSC Leadership.But I have decided to apply 30 minute before the deadline and this was a lifechanger moment in my life.
I was eating my lunch when I get the mail which is about announcing the leadership. I was super excited and I had no idea what should i do.
After that, with all leaders, we did our first meetup with Merve İşler who is a Community Manager of the GDSC Program in the Turkey&Central Asia Region and the story began…
In the sequel, We organized Soft Skills events too. I think they were as important as technicals because these pieces of training are beneficial, they are reshaping people while expressing themselves.
Bugdroid Academy
One of the mandatory activities on the GDSC calendar is Android. As a result, I and nine other leaders from various GDSCs agreed to organize a large and comprehensive event. We were quite thrilled for Bugdroid Academy, which was the first event in this serie.
We developed a basic mobile application with Kotlin at this event, which had over 150 attendees. I had some prior experience with Kotlin, so this was not unfamiliar territory for me.
Solution Challenge
The mission of the 2022 Solution Challenge is to solve for one or more of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals using Google technology.
We develop a project for Solution Challenge as Google Developer Student Club — Çankaya and also, received grant support in the “Gelisim Seninle” project competition which organized by British Petroleum (bp). Congratulations again to all my teammates, especially Adil Ekrem AKPINAR and Bahu Tongal, who pioneered the development of this project! It is a mobile application and we still developing with Flutter on Front-End, and Altogic on the Back-End side. Getting better every day!
Flutter Fest
And Flutter… This is another compulsory event of Google Calendar but this is a life-changer technology for me. Before the event, I had no idea about what Flutter is or why people are using it but now, I am a Flutter addict.
As 10 GDSC, we organized the biggest event of the year. A training course during 5 weeks and 20+ hours education was given by the developers. I met with amazing developers at Flutter Fest. This was the second step of smash event.
We really did a smashing event because the application was 1800+ and it viewed more than 25k on Youtube. You can reach the playlist here.
And the Final of a Serie: Flutter Fest Hackathon
This is the actual event which we would like to achieve and the real reason why we gathered. Because we wanted to create an environment where people could train on a subject from zero and then put their theoretical knowledge into practice. That's why we organized this kinda event and I really enjoyed being part of it.
Applications were more than 350 people from various backgrounds. Some people join with their groups and some of them met at the event itself and that was amazing!
For 48 hours, 65 teams worked amazingly and strived for developing a useful application for 3 specific United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
During the Hackathon, many experts in the different fields talked in Live Stream and answer questions of juniors. Finally, Hackathon inherit 40+ beautiful projects and happy faces.
Iappreciate to my leader friends. We worked hard on this journey and we set a standards higher than the current with them. Thanks Sude Topal, Muhammed Furkan Gülşen, Yiğit Yıldırımoğlu, Elif Bilge Parlak, Zeliha Şeker, Mustafa Kara, Sinem Ağar and Onur Öner for being a good teammate. It was really nice to work with you!
You can reach the Kick-Off from here.
You can reach the Atıl Samancıoglu session from here.
Flutter Students Club (FSC)
After Flutter Fest and Flutter Hackathon, I really obsessed with Flutter and I joined a new team which named is Flutter Students Club. This is a volunteer organization for developers who wants to develop themselves in Flutter.
On this team, We are writing technical articles on Medium every month, helping each other with issues, and making public speeches at events. I took lots of mentorship in this team and improved myself day by day and this process still going on…
I can clearly say that this club is really effective because I found my internship due to my studying and my effort about Flutter in Cyberpark/Ankara.
My Articles
- Introduction to Material Design (Jan 29, 2022)
- Material Design 3.0 (Feb 25, 2022)
- Coming soon…
Flutter Festival Turquoise
As an FSC, We organized one of the biggest events in Turkey about Flutter. I was an organizer and speaker at Flutter Festival Turquoise which is an event organized by GDG Istanbul, GDG Bursa, GDG Antalya, GDG Yalova, GDG Cloud Bursa, GDG Cloud İstanbul, Flutter İstanbul, Flutter Students Club and 20+ GDSCs.
At this Festival, 18 Speakers talked in dual languages for 2 Days. It was really inspiring and instructive Festival and I really glad to be a part of it.
On Day-2, I was a speaker and I talked about Material Design for a little bit My purpose was to raise awareness about this neglected design system.
Summary
Let’s make a flashback to the time of my application process, there were 30 minutes before the deadline, remember? I decided to apply in 2 minutes and my life has changed. And, that was the best decision I have ever made.
These are what have I done in 10 months period as a Google DSC Lead. I met with amazing people, gained lots of experience, capabilities, and confidence, found an internship and I had soooo much fun!
I totally write this writing for Next-Gen Leaders to take it as Guidelines. It is totally worth it. You should definitely try your chance!
Feel free to contact with me: https://linktr.ee/berkinylmz
Ciao Bella…
