My name is Nawal and I am from Syria. I was in midst of studying for my last year at Mechatronics Engineering College when I moved to Erbil, Iraq after the war started. I’ve now lived in Erbil for 5 years.
When I first came to Erbil, I was lucky enough to find a job in the telecommunication field without a Bachelor degree and languages like English and Kurdish. In my position, I worked hard to improve myself, learn and gain the experience that made me able to occupy an important position in the company. But I soon found that was not enough, and I began to hate the daily routine of work.
When I heard about Re:Coded, I felt that I finally found what I needed.
A place where I can meet new friends, be surrounded by talented people, practice my English and within a few months move from speaking nearly no English to being comfortable with public speaking and giving presentations. Not to mention, the most valuable part, learning to code which I had no experience in before Re:Coded.
Android mobile development that we learned it in a way that makes us fall in love and can’t stop learning it.
The way Re:Coded taught us Android Mobile Development made me fall in love with code, and I soon found myself wanting to learn everything I could.
We also worked in teams in real client projects to have the experience in freelancing. I set myself the goal to be a successful female team leader, and at the end of the bootcamp, my team was one of the top two teams from the course.
After the bootcamp, Re:Coded helped me find a job. I became an IT instructor for Preemptive Love Coalition that helps refugees and IDPs to learn IT and English to be able to find jobs. My experience from my client project — which was an application to serve AI companies with data training and help refugees to generate income — gave me the skills and knowledge to be successful at my new job.
I am now the MicroWork instructor in the same organization. I help my students learn how to work on data training platforms and to earn money from their work. I work to be a good example for my students, and to share my experience from Re:Coded to provide motivation.
I also share my enthusiasm for learning online no matter where we are and where we belong to. When I started with Re:Coded one year ago I didn’t know that I would earn the highest grade(97.9%) within the challenging environment with people who are English speakers and have very good coding experience. Just work hard and dream big.
We are now four Re:Coded Alumni working in the same training center teaching what we are passionate about and my goal is to help share the Re:Coded message, by working to build the tech community in Erbil and be a leader in technology.
