Welcome, Cohort 8!
Twice a year, we onboard a new cohort of software development students at Green River College. Here’s a recap of today’s Cohort 8 meet and greet.
Twice a year, the software development team at Green River College onboards a new cohort of incoming students. Today, we had the immense privilege of welcoming Cohort 8. These 26 new students have completed their associate degree, a sequence of foundational programming courses, and are preparing to begin their third year of study towards completion of a bachelor’s degree in software development. Now the fun — and hard work — really begins.
During today’s cohort meet and greet, Cohort 8 students met their peers, participated in team-building activities, drew wisdom from guest speakers, and participated in a Q and A with faculty and staff on how to be successful in the program.
To kick off the event, we had students organize in small teams and introduce themselves to one another. We then gave each team five minutes to identify a common interest, then write a haiku about it since a haiku, much like a piece of code, is a structured form of utterance that performs a specific task. (This is a handy icebreaker picked up at last year’s National Science Foundation-funded Lighthouse CC Workshop. Give it a try at your next event.)
Students also heard from Toygan Sevim, a current software development student who is entering his senior year of study. Sevim spent a few minutes offering words of coaching and encouragement to attendees, and fielded questions from the audience.
The event also included a version of Lean Coffee, a tried-and-true activity we use often that allows students to individually submit, then collectively vote on, questions and other topics of interest to discuss.
Instructors Josh Archer and Janet Hollier, our resident data structure and algorithm gurus, concluded the meet and greet with an interactive activity on effective study habits.
More than just a fun networking opportunity, events like this are something our team strives to improve continuously to better help our students form peer-to-peer relationships and prepare for success.
At Green River College, we’re helping shape a new, more diverse generation of software developers to fill jobs right here in Seattle-Tacoma. At the heart of that enterprise? Students like this.
Welcome, Cohort 8!
Learn more about Green River’s bachelor of applied science in software development at www.greenriver.edu/software.
