Tales from Intersect 2017: Part III, The End (or is it?)

So much of this is about giving people a voice. An opportunity to stand up and be recognized. To say, I belong to this world.

Jennifer Dulski, president of change.org, and one of our speakers today, enunciated for us all why this is so important:

Maureen Fan, of Baobab Studios, posed a question to the audience. How many in the room considered themselves to be an athlete? A few hands went up. Who here is a singer-songwriter? Just a few hands again. How about an astronaut? “There is always one,” said Maureen. And there was. “When you were 5 years old,” said Maureen, “you would have answered ‘yes’ to all three.”

The room was quiet. We knew she was right. Or was she?

We were reminded then, that we also believe this. There is still a dreamer within us all.

Last year at this time, Udacity Blitz was just a dream. Today, lifelong learners, dreamers, are getting jobs because of Udacity Blitz. The Udacity Blitz team was here today—meeting, greeting, networking, supporting, exhorting, teaching, and believing.

“Take care of your clients. Check in on them after projects. Following up helps nurture the relationship, gets you additional projects and referrals, and gives you the opportunity to get some feedback on the impact of your work, which is great for quantifying your success on your career profiles and marketing documents.”

This is from a resource they were providing to attendees today. How To Be An Amazing Freelancer. Because dreams don’t just become real. They are built. Step by step, lesson by lesson.

They are built through a combination of faith and failure.

Sebastian Thrun and Astro Teller closed out our event today.

We came together, all of us today, to try and achieve something special. All of us from Udacity. All our wonderful Udacity students. Our friends, our partners, our colleagues. We came together today, to live inside the dream that we built. How did it feel?

It feels wonderful!

Is it over?

No, it isn’t.

We have only just begun.

~

This post was written by Christopher Watkins, Senior Writer, Udacity