A Busy Mom’s Story about Udacity’s Front End Web Developer Nanodegree Program

Some 5,000 students have been a part of the Grow with Google Scholarship — a US-focused program offering learning opportunities to a dedicated and diverse group of incredible individuals. Udacity invited students to share their experiences in their own words, and we were delighted to receive some truly powerful stories of transformation and success. Today, we’d like to share one of our favorites.

A little bit about me and how I started on this Udacity journey.

I’m always on a quest for self-improvement. Whether it is learning a new language, learning about a different culture, trying new foods, or finding the next learning opportunity. The reason I love working in web development is because almost every day, I learn something new.

For the last nine years, I have been creating web applications. I was mostly self-taught, having only had a few formal web programming classes in undergrad with some additional programming classes after I graduated. My skillset is rooted in databases and decision support software. I do most of my coding alone and I learned a lot by using Google. Not having a formal education, I felt lacking in training. I needed some additional training to take my websites to the next level.

I am a 37-year-old wife and mom. I have three boys, with two who are still in preschool. Time and money are huge barriers for me to continuing education. I was determined to find scholarships or programs that would help me advance my career but still allow me the time I needed to be there for my family.

I found the Grow with Google Scholarship Program after following the Women Techmakers program. I received an email about the scholarship and I applied immediately. I eagerly awaited to see if I would be accepted in the first phase. When I received the email that I got into Phase 1 of the Front End Web Developer program, I knew the experience would be life changing. It was a chance to get the training I needed to improve on the applications that I already created and to get the skills I needed to move forward in this field. My goal for this Nanodegree program was to learn new concepts and become a better developer.

My experience in the Front End Web Developer Nanodegree Program

I literally screamed and woke up my children when I was accepted into the second phase of the program, which included a six-month scholarship to the Front End Web Developer Nanodegree program. The second phase was nowhere near as easy as the first phase, but it prepared me in so many ways that I didn’t expect.

For the past few years, I have been developing web projects alone. I would get requirements from the company or client and try to solve those issues on my own. I didn’t know how to work with others on a development project, other than just using IT support.

Through this program, I learned how much we can learn from working together. In times where I felt overwhelmed, our Slack community was there, always willing to help out. Sometimes it was just an encouraging word or motivation. I never felt alone. There was always someone online to help, or there was a meeting I could go to, a project mentor, or someone who provided a project walkthrough.

“I originally felt that I needed to figure it out all on my own. I quickly realized that we can learn together and I can still put my own ideas and creativity into my projects. It is okay to ask for help!”

Challenges

There were some projects that took me to my wit's end. I was on a summer family vacation and found myself needing to login late at night, just to stay on top of things. I had to start over sometimes after spending days on a project.

One of the toughest challenges I faced was starting a project over again after putting in weeks of work. Around midway through a project, I realized that the libraries I used were not going to work with functionality I wanted to implement. I had to either move forward with something I had not envisioned or start over again. I decided to take a short break and do a little bit of research first. Taking breaks brings clarity and helps me focus on what is important. I backed up my original concept and started over completely. It was a lot of work and late nights, but I was still able to complete the project on time and pass. Through mistakes I made, I learned a lot more about the code I was writing and the development process. I appreciate those mistakes because they made me a better developer.

Successes

One of the best feelings I had was creating the Memory Game project. At the beginning of the project, I felt so overwhelmed. I didn’t know where to start. Somewhere in the middle of the project, after I got the basic functionality to work, I became consumed with making it better. I had my family test out the game while I was developing it. This had to be one of my favorite projects because the kids loved it.

“My children didn’t know what I did for a living before. Now they know mommy makes websites and she can make games! Win for mommy!”

I learned how to use Git and GitHub, and that has been a real game changer for me in my current role. I didn’t know how to use version control before and I had been doing development for years. I immediately put it into practice and that has become one of the things I do just about every day. It completely changed the way I do work and opened the door for me to start to work on open source projects.

As a result of the Nanodegree program, I now have a portfolio of work that I can show employers or potential clients. That is huge! The best way to show anyone that you can actually do the work is to be able to demonstrate the work that you have already done.

Conclusion

The Front End Web Developer Nanodegree program was challenging. If you are going to do a Nanodegree program with Udacity, plan to commit to it daily. The more you are in the classroom, on Slack or in the discussion rooms, the better your chances are to complete the program. For me, that meant at least 1–2 hours a day. And most days I spent more time than that—working on lecture activities and projects.

Now that I have completed the program I feel more prepared than I ever have in this field. I’m ready to take on open source code projects.

“Even though I don’t know it all (yet!), it has helped with the fundamentals I need to step out of my comfort zone and just start working.”

One of the best parts of the Nanodegree program is the network and the community that I feel a part of now. We all have come from different backgrounds and experience, and we have learned front-end web development together. We have followed each other on Slack, LinkedIn and GitHub. We have helped each other with so many projects. It really helped solidified the importance of working as a team. Again, that was one thing that I was not used to but quickly came to realize that was very necessary.

“This program was so worth it. I was able to immediately apply lessons learned in coursework into practice at work.”

I am implementing new code changes that I have learned from the Nanodegree program that I’m hoping will improve user experience dramatically. I can’t wait to start putting more into practice, contributing more, and making some really cool apps in the process!

Fantastic to hear Nikiya! Thanks so much for sharing your story with us! We’ll be publishing more of our favorite stories from the Grow with Google scholars shortly, so check back soon!