Igniting A Passion of Coding and an Addiction to Hackathons from Kode with Klossy and HobbyHacks
--
Last year the beginning of Summer 2019, I was coming back from a wonderful trip to Alaska. We cut our trip slightly short so that I could attend my first Kode with Klossy camp in Dallas, little did we know that the weather wasn’t on our side and our flight back home was cancelled resulting in me missing the first day of Kode with Klossy camp. I was dedicated to making up from the first day and make my camp an unforgettable experience. I learned many skills from the camp but wasn’t as attached to field as I thought I would be. After the camp I had coded a small website that compiled a list of opportunities for high school students like myself, but my skills didn’t stick as much because I couldn’t even remember how to upload it to GitHub.
Fast forward to summer of 2020, I was staying in New York and had attended my second Kode with Klossy camp virtually, and I learned Mobile App Development. In the middle of my camp I got some sort of ‘enlightenment’ telling me that I had to seriously make the best of this camp. I had also convinced my parents into letting myself get an Instagram, which had only opened more doors for myself to grow. After the camp I had kept in touch with my fellow scholars and a few of us decided that we would attend our first hackathon together the following weekend, HobbyHacks.
I had always thought that hackathons require a certain level of experience and skill and had always stayed away due to this thought. I was surprised when I saw that most attendees at HobbyHacks were also attending their first hackathon. I was too young to receive prizes but I wasn't too young to gain an experience by attending workshops and helping out a team as much as I could. The team that I joined to help out had a very ambitious idea considering that all of us were first time hackers. Our idea was to train AI to generate its own recipes, none of us knew a single thing about AI. With the help of mentors we were able to successfully complete our project. Though the team didn’t win a prize we won an unforgettable experience.
Falling in love with experience I was inspired to attend another hackathon the next weekend, To The Moon Hack. That weekend wasn’t just any weekend, it was a religious holiday for me, Eid ul-Adha. Our team’s idea was to create a web app that helps people get a feeling of what is like to be an astronaut. The web app converts your age, weight on the planet of your choice and gives a story about an astronaut that went to space at the same age of the entered age. Though it was a holiday, I was dedicated to putting in as much as work as I possibly could. Our team didn’t win a prize but I again won another experience.
The next weekend I attended MIST Games Hackathon. MIST (Muslim Interscholastic Tournament) is a tournament my school participates in every year. This year in light of it being virtual, they added a hackathon as a competition for the first time. I was part of one of two all-girls teams competing, both teams consisted of Kode with Klossy Alumni. The theme of the hackathon was finding a solution to a Global Public Health Crisis. My team consisted of two other girls who were first time hackers and myself who was also fairly new to the concept of hackathons. Our project, DiverseHealth is an app that aims to defeat health disparities through virtual recruitment of minority research participants. The app provides information on diversity levels and demographics for studies for a population without medical literacy, and provides resources of ongoing studies, as well as current clinical trials available for enrollment. This was an eye opening experience as I got to learn more about a very critical topic and was able to help develop a viable solution to the problem. Our team won First Place for this hackathon, and it was our team's first ever hackathon win!
I have attended a hackathon every weekend for the past three weeks and I hope to keep this streak for as long as I can. This past month I have learned so much from, learning how to create a mobile app, compete in hackathons, a few things about AI, Flask, and Python, as well as learning a whole bunch about health disparities in minority research. I have also learned that no project is perfect and is not expected to be, your idea and effort is valued much more than the portrayal of the project. Winning does not determine anything including your effort, validity of your idea, skills and more.
Special thanks to Kode with Klossy, TechTogether and the MLH. You can also follow me on instagram @salwa_din
Thank You for Reading!
