TechTogether Boston 2021: How Coding Can Help You Overcome Difficulties
Coding is a great way for folks in STEM to flex their technical and creative skills, especially at hackathons. Sarah, a TechTogether Boston 2021 participant, believes that everyone has the ability to not only code but learn to love it. Read below to learn how coding at hackathons, helped Sarah overcome the difficulties in her life.
My name is Sarah. I’m a high school junior who lives in the Boston area. I like to code, sing, read, and play video games in my free time.
I started hacking in 8th grade and went to Hack BI in 2018, winning my first hackathon prize (it was also my first hackathon!!) with my team. I, unfortunately, had to take a break from coding and attending hackathons in 2019 due to personal health concerns.
In early 2019 I got sick during basketball practice at my old school. I was eventually taken to the ER, stayed in the hospital for a combined (multiple admissions and discharges) total time of almost one month, and eventually had surgery to fix the issue. Soon after, I got diagnosed with chronic illnesses, including JIA and POTS.
However, this didn’t stop me! I decided to start getting back into coding and attending virtual competitions this year. TechTogether Boston is the second hackathon I have participated in so far this year and the first hackathon where I won an award with my team!
TechTogether Boston is a hackathon for people of marginalized genders, and this was my first time attending one of TechTogether’s hackathons. I met two people, Molly and Galen, who eventually became my teammates. The project we submitted is Espy, a social media site that allows people to discover restaurants and attractions in your area that you may not have known about previously.
I focused on the UI aspect of the project, while Molly and Galen mostly did back-end, with Molly assisting me in front-end development. Due to us working well together as a team, we won the best UI/UX at TechTogether Boston! I had a lot of fun, everyone was very welcoming, and I made new friends, which is always a plus!
All in all, I believe everyone is capable of being able to code! Even if you’re a beginner or have internal or external struggles in any aspect of your life, we all have the ability to learn something new and show the world that we are capable of something great.
TechTogether Boston and TechTogether all around is a fantastic organization with amazing hackathons. I will definitely be attending more in the future and recommend TechTogether (spoiler alert: I already have!!) to my friends and family. Thanks to TechTogether Boston for giving me one of my most memorable hacking experiences. :)
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