The silent heroes of our community
The real heroes of the SummerCodeCamp, helping turn 50 women into web developers
If you’re following UmaHub on social media you must have heard about the big SummerCodingCamp we’re doing with Women in Tech®.
We’re teaching 50 women from around the world web development.
We started last week and the experience so far has been mind blowing! But that’s a whole different blog post…
Today, I wanted to talk to you about the real heroes of this project, hidden behind the scenes.
They’re too humble to brag about how they volunteered to teach these ladies to code.
They’re too humble to say they’re putting in an average of 2 hours per day out of their own sacred time, just so they can help them with their questions, provide guidance and give them moral support.
These guys and girls saw the call for volunteers on Twitter, clicked the apply button and have been impeccable since, providing so much valuable input.
All because they believe in the women-in-tech cause. They believe in diversity.
And oh my… oh my… speaking of diversity… ladies and gentlemen… let me introduce to you… THE VOLUNTEER MENTORS OF SummerCodeCamp!
Bianca Dennis, Pennsylvania USA
Bianca is a javascript developer focusing mostly on React.
“I studied languages in college and after studying web development at the New York Code + Design Academy I saw how my interests align with programming.
In my spare time I tutor young students learning to code as an instructor with Juni Learning and watch (too much) television.”
Shajia Abidi, California- USA
Shajia is a journalist turned into a Front-End Web Developer. She took a Data Journalism class that excited her more than any other coursework, and so she decided to pursue Front-End.
One day I enrolled in an online training program, and I’ve been coding ever since!
Follow Shajia on LinkedIn
Nikaelly Lima, Paraná — Brazil
Nikaelly has a degree in Computer Science and is a member of a group called Conectadas, which aims to increase female participation in Information Technology.
“I believe that Technology can change the world and change people’s life in a positive way. As a volunteer in UmaHub’s Code Camp, I’ll have an opportunity to do what I enjoy the most: share what I know with others, hopefully making someone’s life better and helping girls to pursue a career in technology.”
Follow Nikaelly on LinkedIn
Emre Erkan, Istanbul — Turkey
Emre is a self taught full-stack developer with 20 years of experience.
He started his journey with plain HTML and continued with JavaScript. Today he’s a polyglot programmer with lots of experience in front-end/back-end development, mobile development and integrated systems.
Emre named his web agency ADA. There are a lot of reason behind the name but one of them is in honour of Ada Lovelace, who is often referred to as “the first computer programmer”.
Follow Emre on LinkedIn
Lora Vardarova, Berlin- Germany
Lora is frontend software engineer at an e-commerce company specialising in HTML5, CSS3 and everything JavaScript.
She’s curious and loves learning new things and suspects that’s what brought her to programming. :)
“ I genuinely believe that everyone can learn to code. I am happy to support others on their journey into tech.”
Follow Lora on LinkedIn
Christina Kopecky, California- USA
Christina was a flutist and flute teacher for twenty years.
After a medical issue caused her to retire from teaching and playing professionally, she needed to find a field just as challenging and fulfilling as the classical music profession.
I had a flute colleague turn to coding via a bootcamp and had quite the success story — so I decided to give it a try. I enrolled in a school and found that I absolutely loved it. It’s challenging but also fulfilling once you figure out the answer to a problem.
Follow Christina on LinkedIn
Eko Goren, Portugal
“Coding is a great profession, a creative, ever changing, communal playground in which everyone is equal and free to make their own thing, help the world and make money in the process.
Being a full stack web programmer for the last five years I was looking for the opportunity to help others and share my knowledge. I think I found the ultimate place for that with UmaHub’s free summer coding camp for women."
Follow Eko on LinkedIn.
Afreen Rahman, India
Afreen is a senior computer science undergraduate.
She started web development two years ago when she had to work on a college project. Later she got so involved, that she decided to make a career as a frontend developer.
Follow Afreen on LinkedIn
Abby Olaleye, North Carolina — USA
Abby is web developer & designer. She studied communications and journalism in college, but after reading an article about coding, she was instantly intrigued.
She took some online courses in web development, and was shocked to discover that not only she was able to code, but she really enjoyed it too!
She completed a full-stack web development coding bootcamp, and after graduating, she got a job as a developer.
“I am thrilled to have found a career that truly impassions me, and I am excited to help inspire others to pursue a career in tech!”
Follow Abby on LinkedIn
Clemente Estrada, Guadalajara — Mexico
At some point of my life I did not know what to do, I decided study computer science, then I was introduced to web development and that is when my life and mindset changed. I met amazing people and my life was improved.
In my experience learning how to code can change your life and I will always be happy to help others to discover a path that leads to a better life.
Follow Clemente on LinkedIn
Caleb Martinez, North Carolina— USA
Caleb is a self taught fullstack developer from Charlotte who started learning young and enjoys being involved with the local developer community.
He spends a lot of time helping others learn and develop coding skills as a TA at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and also as a volunteer for the local Girl Develop It chapter.
My goal is to continue to grow as a developer and educator while leaving a positive impact on those around me!
Follow Caleb on LinkedIn
Larissa Varjão, Brazil
"I love coding and I think it is a way to change the world and even the reality of some people.
I love helping out when I can and I hope that these ladies could learn a lot and even teach me many things one day."
Follow Larissa on LinkedIn
Farideh Rahimzadeh, San Francisco — USA
Farideh is a frontend web developer and recently graduated from Codify Academy. Currently, she's a teaching assistant for students who are new to the program.
"I'm helping students become Web Developers. English is my fifth language and what I find most fulfilling is finding creative ways to solve problems in every aspect of life especially when it involves helping others."
Follow Farideh on LinkedIn
Matt Trask, Nashville, Tennessee
Matt is a Senior developer at an e-commerce start up working with awesomely boring technology.
"I'm passionate about open source software, learning and trying new things. Im completely self taught, going from HTML and CSS to PHP, APIs, Hypermedia and more. I organize a user group, a conference and I am a conference speaker as well."
Follow Matt on LinkedIn
Rachel Lim, New York USA
Rachel worked in nonprofit organisations in the area of social work/education for 6+ years before making a career change to tech. She taught herself HTML, CSS, JS before enrolling and graduating from a programming school.
“I fell in love with coding because there is something magical about being able to intertwine creativity for the front end and analytics for the back end. I received so much help and mentorship when I was just starting out in tech, I hope to give some back by being a volunteer for Umahub Code Camp.”
Follow Rachel on LinkedIn
Bilal Çinarli, Germany
Bilal is a Software Engineer working for Adidas and a Google Developer Expert on Web Technologies.
He is a big enthusiast of building maintainable and scalable front-ends. To achieve this goal, he maintains open-source projects such as Caffeine, Melange, Misto and UX Rocket. In day-to-day works, he works on mobile web apps and JavaScript applications for intranets and as well as client apps.
He manages teams and optimises the front-end development process. He is also, teaches HTML/CSS and JavaScript techniques and gives workshops about Front-end related topics.
He blogs at HTML Magazine where he shares his thoughts about web development and mobile approaches.
Follow Bilal on LinkedIn
It’s also important to share these examples of altruism in order to show developers they can have a direct and strong impact on someone’s entire life, if they decide to put in a few hours in mentoring a person who’s just starting out.
It’s also important to share these stories so people who are just starting out can see that they can learn to code too, and make a “late” career switch. As we could see, there are different ways to learn.. some of the mentors learned on their own, some went to a programming school, some studied computer science… but one thing is sure… Being in a safe and supportive community aiming for the same goal makes the process of learning much more pleasurable.
If you want to tap into the tech world too, join our next fully mentor-led “Web Development for beginners” course starting in August.
