My Journey with Udacity and Grow With Google: from Translation to Coding
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.
I want to use this post to tell you about my experience with the Front End Web Developer Nanodegree program, an online program offered by Udacity that I had the opportunity to be part of thanks to a scholarship awarded by Udacity and Google.
The Start of the Journey
Before I begin, I’d just like to say that my background isn’t related to the IT field at all. I majored in Foreign Languages and Cultures. My work experience has mostly been as a translator or an interpreter. Although I’d been exposed to new technologies with some of these experiences, I had never acquired specific technical skills in the field.
My journey with coding began last year. That was the year that I moved to the US from Italy, my home country. It was a decision made for love (I moved to be with my fiancé), but not an easy one. All of a sudden, I was living in Los Angeles, speaking a foreign language, with my hometown, friends and family thousands of miles away.
Being stuck in the middle of the US immigration process, I wasn’t able to work for most of the year. This enforced “indefinite vacation” got old very quickly and I was eager to start my new life and be productive. That’s when I decided to finally try to work on something I have always had a strong interest in: Web Development. I started researching, browsing through online courses, video tutorials and articles about HTML, CSS and Javascript. I started attending some coding meetups that I found in my new city. As I kept going, my interest in these languages grew stronger. Although my initial goal was to study them only as a hobby, I gradually started to consider the idea of trying to work with these skills once I was finally ready to start my career in the US.
However, despite making daily progress, I had constant anxiety that what I was doing wasn’t enough. If I wanted to become a professional, I’d have to do more than passively self-study. The thought of competing for jobs with other Computer Science graduates with way more experience than me was daunting. Onsite bootcamps were an attractive option but not financially feasible. There were many days when I thought about adjusting my expectations and keeping this as an occasional hobby or—at most—something that would help me kill time in a productive way.
That’s when I found a Facebook post about a scholarship by Udacity, an educational organization that offers online courses focused on the acquisition of technical skills. This scholarship was divided into two separate paths: one focused on Web Development and the other one on Android development. There were two phases for this scholarship, the first one being an introduction to both paths, and the second one, accessible only by the top students, being the Nanodegree program itself.
I immediately thought that finding out about this scholarship right when I was studying Web Development was fortuitous. I knew that I at least had to give it a try. The fact that there wasn’t an initial requirement for prior coding experience further encouraged me to take the chance and submit an application.
Things got crazy after I applied. I finally got my green card, officially becoming a permanent US resident. I changed cities, relocating from LA to Austin, where I had to start many things over from zero. I found my first full time job. All these events pushed the application farther and farther from my mind. Then one day in early January of 2018 I received notification that I had been accepted into the first phase. I was ecstatic.
“I couldn’t believe it! I’d actually been accepted! I couldn’t wait to start. I knew it would be tough but that all I could do was try my best. And that’s how my awesome journey with Udacity began.”
What Was Accomplished Along the Way
The first phase of the challenge focused on the basics of HTML and CSS. Since I had already studied most of the content on my own previously, I was able to breeze through the first few classes without any real issues. I had a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around JavaScript and jQuery at first, but the community, the challenges, and the final project (which consisted in the creation of a Pixel Art game with JavaScript and jQuery) pushed me to keep going until the end.
To my great delight and surprise, I’d also been accepted as one of the recipients of the second phase scholarship! This second phase had a more focused curriculum. In the first part, it was mostly about HTML, CSS and Responsive Web Design techniques. The project for this part involved the creation of a portfolio web page, which wasn’t too hard overall and provided me a good base to work on for my future portfolio pages.
The real challenge started in the second phase. It was heavily focused on JavaScript and Object-Oriented Programming, as well as Git and version control, Accessibility, task runners and several testing tools. Each of them had a game as final project: a Memory Game and an Arcade Game. I found them challenging but really fun to make. JavaScript was no longer used for animation purposes only, but for the logic of the games too, which required a lot of testing and thinking about every possible scenario to prevent bugs. I’ve lost count of how many games I’ve started and how many cards I’ve flipped to check that everything was working as expected.
The next part was dedicated to the creation of single-page apps. It presented us with some popular JavaScript frameworks, explained how to work with promises and use service workers. I personally found these latter two subjects to be the most difficult. The final project was a Restaurant Review app, which needed to be converted from a static webpage to a responsive and accessible mobile-ready web application equipped with a service worker. It was with this project that I further refined my CSS and design skills and started being more aware of Accessibility and the WAI-ARIA principles.
Finally, the last part was entirely dedicated to React and was by far my favorite. For this part, I made two projects. The first was a MyReads app, which allows users to select and categorize books they have read, are currently reading, or want to read. The second project was a Neighborhood Map app—a single page application featuring a map of a neighborhood I’ve lived in (I chose my old neighborhood in LA for the sake of nostalgia) and select venues listed on a side menu and marked on the map. While the bookshelf app didn’t take too long to make, the neighborhood map was by far the most challenging project of the Nanodegree program. It was built completely from scratch and required the use of everything we had been learning throughout the course, be it React, Responsive Web Design, Accessibility, web servers, and even the Google Maps API. I had reserved a whole month to work on this project alone, and I can’t describe the joy and relief that I’ve felt when, after submitting it, I received the notification that it passed, granting me the final diploma.
Reflection on the Journey
Looking back now, after completing this Nanodegree program, I still am amazed at what I’ve accomplished. From an almost absolute beginner, I became able to effectively write lines of code and work on projects that seemed overwhelmingly impossible for me just months before. One of my greatest accomplishments was, without a doubt, the improvement of my newly acquired coding skills.
“Thanks to this program, I gained a much deeper understanding of HTML and CSS. I now have an excellent overview of various frameworks and other tools as well, such as testing tools and task runners.”
I also learned an incredible amount about JavaScript and how to use React, one of its most popular libraries today. My code has become cleaner and far more organized. My overall attitude towards problem solving has vastly improved. What helped me the most were, without a doubt, the projects. I found “learn by doing” was the most effective and fun way to remember and actually understand what was taught during the lessons. I could easily spend hours and hours every day on a single project without getting tired and even lose sleep because it was just too tempting to keep going. Should I add this new feature or improve that aspect? Why not change the style again while I am at it? Not to mention the fact that, with these projects, I now have a brand new portfolio with various works that showcase my coding skills!
But the ways I benefited from this scholarship don’t just stop with technical skills. One of the most valuable things that this program has taught me is how to do independent research and find the answers to my own questions.
“There are times when everything goes smoothly. Then there are times when obstacles are inevitable—no matter how skilled the programmer might be. That’s the only way improvement can happen: by finding obstacles, taking up challenges, and finding ways to overcome them, which many times means going beyond the content of the lessons, regardless of what program one may be taking.”
This is why it’s so important to absorb the concepts taught during the course as best you can and then do more research, read documentation, and find more and more useful resources. I think Udacity is very effective in making students learn how to do this. Every lesson mentions additional resources that students can optionally choose to read if they want to get to know more about a certain topic. Each project has minimum requirements that must be met in order to pass, but students are always strongly encouraged to add extra features and customize them in order to make them their own unique creation — the only caveat being to always include credits. It felt a bit uncomfortable at first but it’s a fundamental skill to learn. No developer knows everything and no course, bootcamp or even college graduation marks the end of studying.
Another great thing I took away from this program is being able to ask for help and receiving support whenever I need it. Everyone gets stuck at some point. And while I personally still struggle with it and tend to always want to stubbornly find the solution on my own, I have learned that being able to ask the right questions in the right way is by itself such an important skill.
“One of the best features of the Nanodegree program is its vast community of students who are all working towards the same goal. I met many wonderful and talented people in my program. “
They were always very supportive and helpful, with the drive and encouragement to always keep going.
A program structured in this way, with flexible deadlines, might be hard to keep up with. Life happens and gets in the way. Shortly after I had gotten the scholarship for the first phase of the challenge, I started my first full time job in the US, which made finding time to study way harder. Then there were the times when I doubted myself, especially when a concept just didn’t quite click, or when my ideas on how to carry out a project turned out to be overly optimistic. That’s when I’d start wondering if this is really the right path for me, and if I should just stick to being a linguist after all. The online community, the periodic challenges and the cohort groups helped me a lot with keeping up with the pace, not falling behind, and most importantly, not giving in to my insecurities.
The Journey from Here
I’m forever grateful for the opportunity I was given to be a part of this. I’m proud to have made it this far, but I think this is still only the beginning of a long journey. There are still a lot of topics that I can’t wait to get more into by myself and I feel like I have Udacity to thank for that. They gave me a solid foundation that will allow me to go out and about on my own and explore more and more complex concepts.
Besides the lessons, throughout the six months of courses there were several online events such as study jams, webinars, and live sessions with expert developers. I have watched many of the webinars and I found them really inspiring and useful, especially the ones focused on the job research (Udacity offers a Career Service support to alumni, which is another one of the best features of this Nanodegree program).
Over the last few months I have already been contacted for roles within the IT field, which came as a welcome surprise. Nevertheless, in order to become a full-fledged web developer, or even just being comfortable when interviewing with tech companies, I still feel like I have a lot to learn. The feeling of never being good enough or never knowing enough lurks behind every corner. In the end, however, this accomplishment definitely gave a boost to my confidence and motivated me to push myself even harder.
I don’t know what would have happened if, on that early day in November, I’d chosen to ignore that Facebook post and simply let this chance slip away. Maybe I would have kept going, or maybe I would have slowly set all this aside, letting another dream slip away into darkness. Now my goal is clear: to gradually transition into this field, possibly combining my language skills too in my future job.
“But most importantly I want to keep studying. I want to find more learning opportunities, improve on old projects, find new ones to work on. I never want to stop learning.”
I’m incredibly thankful to Udacity for this life-changing opportunity that allowed me to explore something that turned out to be a real passion for me. I am sure that this will help me so much in my new life and career here, just as it has helped me reach new levels of personal growth and enrichment.
Thanks so much for sharing your story with us Sonia! Congratulations on everything you’ve achieved and best of luck in your new life in the US! We’ll be publishing more of our favorite stories from the Grow with Google scholars shortly, so check back soon!
