A Very Thorough Spotlight on GDI Teacher Jessica Parsons
Education has played a big role in your life, tell me about that.
I used to teach elementary school, but found that the crowd control and motivation management aspects took too much of my energy away from what I really loved — teaching and learning new things! I transitioned to being a school technology coordinator, which had me teaching teachers as well as children, and learning all sorts of tech, including web development. After that, I left full-time work for several years and continued doing web development on a part-time basis. I learned a lot, but it was isolating working from home. About a year ago, I started going to Meetups like GDI, and re-ignited my passion for teaching.
How did you get involved with Girl Develop It?
I found about about Girl Develop It when I started searching Meetup for web-development-related groups. I met other members at conference roll calls, worked with a team at NeoHack, and advanced my Javascript skills at workshops. I started volunteering by making code contributions to the GDI teaching materials repository, fixing errors that popped up during workshops I attended. Some of these are as easy as fixing a typo, so it’s a great way to get started with git and contributing to open source.
Sign up for Intro to Git and Github on July 24 taught by Jessica and Open Source Hack Day on July 31
What do you enjoy about volunteering with GDI?
Kids are great, but I love teaching adults! Everyone in a GDI workshop is there because they want to be, even if they’re afraid the material might be too hard. I love helping someone take that motivation to learn, push aside the possible fear, and work through the challenge of learning something new. It’s cliche to to say I love the “a-ha” moment, but really, can you beat it?
What advice would you give to a novice learning software development?
Don’t worry about trying to catch on to the latest trend. There are many paths in software development, and choosing yours based on what the “market” seems to want can mean choosing something that ultimately isn’t right for you. Explore the active Meetup scene we have here, and see what “clicks.” Be aware of the people as well as the tech itself — healthy communities make happy programmers! You may even find that your calling lies outside of tech, but that you can use new tech skills to add dimension and value to your work.
What were some of your “wins” so far this year?
My biggest win recently was to take my own advice and recognize that I was following a path that wasn’t right for me. I’m so much happier, and more successful.
What’s your favorite meme of the moment?
I just learned about Reddit’s Real Life Doodles, where people draw animated faces and arms onto objects in video gifs. They’re delightfully expressive, and often require a surprising amount of technical skill!
What activities do you enjoy outside of tech?
I love making things that beautifully serve a purpose. Web development is a perfect of example of this, but away from a computer, it usually takes the form of sewing clothing or making fancy desserts. I also enjoy spending time in nature, and love that we have so many beautiful open spaces and trails so close to us here in the bay area.
