What Hack@Brown means to me
Confessions of a hackathon organizer
By most measures, I shouldn’t be intimidated by hackathons. After all, I organized one, I helped lead the efforts for this year’s Hack@Brown. If anything, I should love what hackathons stand for, right?
Unfortunately, no.
A year ago, I was approached by the co-directors of Hack@Brown, asking me to join the design team for what would become Brown’s first annual hackathon. I really trusted them and loved graphic design so I wholeheartedly joined. After a month’s worth of hard work, we excitedly launched registration for the event. Yet, when I was sharing the event and encouraging my friends to go, I felt like a hypocrite.
Because in all honesty, I knew if I was asked to go, I would never go to a hackathon. To me, hackathons embodied everything that intimidated me about computer science. In my mind, it was about wicked-fast iteration, compromised quality, along with peers by my side spewing their latest knowledge about integrating Angular and Node.js when I didn’t even know the basics of CSS and Javascript. Why would I ever willingly put myself in that situation?
Hack@Brown was born out of a mission to make hackathons more inclusive — an environment for students from all skill-levels and backgrounds. When I was asked to be the co-director for Hack@Brown this year, I did so willingly under the pretense to encourage this vision but I couldn’t remove the deeper feeling inside that I was a fraud: that while I was encouraging everyone around me to step out of their comfort zones and go to Hack@Brown, hackathons were still events I avoided myself.
However, starting last September, while leading the efforts for Hack@Brown, I noticed something changing within myself. It started with our first workshop on HTML/CSS. We had expected a small turnout, but as I stood at the door, welcoming students, I noticed that students kept pouring in. Before I knew it, we were looking at a full auditorium of about 150 students, many of whom had non-CS backgrounds.
This kept happening. With every workshop we held, whether it be one on Javascript or Git, I kept meeting people who had an overwhelming desire to just learn. Even if it was a Tuesday night and they had to trudge through snow (because let’s face it, it’s Providence), a lot of these students who despite having no prior experience, were willing to be there just to learn something new.
When we opened registration for Hack@Brown 2015 in early December, we were astounded by the number of applications we received — over 2250. Every morning, my inbox was greeted with a number of e-mails just like this.
There were high schoolers, students from outside the U.S., students from everywhere e-mailing us how much they would love the opportunity to come to Hack@Brown. Many of them confessed having no prior programming experience and asked us for learning resources so they could get a jump-start on a possible project.
With every workshop, e-mail, and little moment, I noticed my perspective on hackathons and ultimately myself, shifting. All these students who had a passion and the drive to just do, inspired me.
Before I knew it, I noticed in my spare time the desire and confidence to start prototyping the ideas I’ve been itching to execute on. My fear of the unknown started becoming less and less relevant as I constantly saw people around me approaching their own unknowns, sometimes stumbling, but always having the faith to continue.
It was through planning Hack@Brown that I slowly started to love what hackathons stand for and could embody.
No, it is not about flashy projects or unlimited Redbull chugging, hackathons are about you. It’s a dedicated time for you to have the confidence to just build and learn.
That project you’ve always thought about but have no idea how to implement?
Yay! There’s people all around you doing the same and mentors to help you.
Maybe you just want to dip your toes into some graphic design or data visualization because you saw a cool TED talk about it the other day.
Go for it.
At the end of day, I think hackathons embody the idea of just having the confidence to get out and bridge your own unknown. An unknown idea, an unknown prototype, an unknown concept, an unknown collaboration.
Just a couple weeks ago, I applied to my first few hackathons. But I know that all of this doesn’t have to happen at a hackathon. For me, planning Hack@Brown was my ticket to realizing that I’m the only one standing in the way of my own fears.
Whether it be at Hack@Brown or another hackathon, I encourage you to give it a chance. Go in with the mentality not to necessarily build a winning project, but more so with the goal of just taking the night to step into the unfamiliar. I’ll make sure to do the same ☺
