Cohort Stories: Meet Abenezer
vol. 5, no. 3 — guest post by Abenezer Fesseha
The first time I ever tried to program was in my senior year of high school when I took an AP computer science course and I absolutely hated it. I tried my best to learn the material but I felt like I was drowning and there was no one to help me. After this experience, I believed that I wasn’t compatible with computer science and swore to never take another computer science course. A couple of years later in my sophomore year of college I decided to give computer science another chance, and to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. I really loved the idea of making my ideas into reality, and programming gave me this ability. I enjoyed my intro computer science course so much that I transferred into the Informatics Data Science major. As I started getting more into tech I wanted real world experience, and that’s when I stumbled upon Hack.Diversity. I really fell in love with the goal of Hack.Diversity and felt that I would fit in well. After applying and being accepted I felt relieved and excited that I would be able to work with such an amazing group of individuals.
As a junior in college with limited experience, I realize the job search will be extremely difficult, but I’m excited that I’ll be able to get real world experience with the help of Hack.Diversity. My current goal is to refine my soft and hard skills enough to land a software engineering position at a great company. After achieving this, my long term goal will be to transition more into entrepreneurship.
I believe the tech industry is so incredible because it inspires innovation and risk taking. It allows for individuals to make meaningful impacts on their environments, and there’s nothing more I’d love than to be a part of that vision.
My definition of success is not only to earn a decent wage, but also impact my community in a positive way. My vision of success is finding the intersection between making a positive impact on my community while still being able to care of my family.
Hack.Diversity connects so many of us who are aspiring to create a better life for ourselves and our families, even though we might not have had many opportunities to do so.
Hack gives us the opportunity to finally make our goals and dreams become reality. I’m excited to be a part of a team and culture that inspires hope to many who haven’t had much hope in their lives.
Many people and organizations gave me the tools and support to make it where I am today. After gaining experience and real world skills I hope to be able to do the same for others that was done to me. Hack.Diversity reminds me to give back to my community and help others along the way.
