Join HACKING FOR HUMANITY – July 8th and 9th in SF! Hackbright Academy, Girls in Tech (SF) and DocuSign are proud to sponsor: Hacking for Humanity, a social innovation Hackathon, uniting women to Solve Global Challenges!
Join us as we innovate for social change for girls and women on this exciting 2-day event. We’ll be hacking away on topics that deal with girls and women including (but not limited to) the following:
Homelessness
Sexual Assault
Domestic Violence
Human Trafficking
Women’s Health
Hackathons exist to enable the rapid prototyping of a complex problem and provide a range of solutions in a short period of time. By hacking with us, we are aiming to think bigger for global change with tech, whilst also allowing impassioned women to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship within our tech ecosystem.
Join the the upcoming Hackathon by purchasing a $20 ticket, which covers meals & snacks during the 2-day event! This hackathon is beginner friendly and for participants new to coding or hackathons. However, any and all levels are welcome.
For more info and to purchase your tickets, click here. Hope to see you there!
“We are as proud of our outcome numbers as we are of the grads who achieve them.” I said that the last time we published an outcomes report. Now I can add that Hackbright is also proud to again be at the forefront of our industry, advocating for reporting that is student-first in its clarity and simplicity. Today Hackbright published its outcomes in the CIRR standard format–the Council on Integrity of Results Reporting.
Hackbright’s CIRR report and the other Council members’ reports published today mark the first time that students, employers and industry partners can see schools’ data in a common, clear, simple table that explains 100% of the graduate outcomes with no footnotes. Hackbright has held this goal dear since our earliest days, and we celebrate the dawn of this new era when “transparency” in outcomes reporting means students can see the facts without parsing footnotes and exclusions.
We’ve been working on this mission for a long time. Hackbright Academy’s founder was the founding chairman of NESTA–the New Economy Skills Training Association. In March 2015, a group of ten schools came together, chaired by David Phillips, and announced that they would develop a common reporting framework. David said then, “As our industry continues to grow rapidly, it is crucial that our schools provide consistent and reliable statistics to ensure we’re held to the highest standards demanded by our students and America’s top companies. We are excited to collaborate with leaders of other top coding schools to establish these best practices.”
With NESTA, there was not a definitive date, and we see that the early good intentions frittered away without achieving the common good.Now, CIRR launched with 15 members, an even larger group of schools, on March 1, 2017. Here we are, one month later, unveiling common reports in a simple, single table, for over a dozen schools.
Hackbright Academy is licensed by the California State BPPE, was the founding chair of NESTA and is now a founding member of CIRR. We care that our students and partners can trust and verify our student outcomes we love to talk about.
Jessica Early is the director of Part-Time Education at Hackbright Academy in San Francisco. Prior to working at Hackbright, she spent a decade working with nonprofits with at-risk youth in disadvantaged areas. She received her BA in Sociology and Education: Applied Psychology from UCSB. At home, Jessica loves to spend time with loved ones, her pets andcollecting strawberry knick knacks.
Programming or coding isn’t just for hoodie-wearing, Doritos-eating math prodigies. People who write code come from all different backgrounds. You don’t even need a CS degree. In fact, 59.8% of software engineers, programmers or computer scientist titles do not carry a CS degree, according to Tech Crunch. So if you don’t have a Computer Science Degree and you’re interested in learning to code, you’re in luck!
Step 1: Watch this video
‘What is programming, exactly?’ you ask. We’ve got answers in this quick video on what programming is and how it relates to the computer. Video by Austin Olney.
Step 2: Spend 60 minutes with Python
Sign up for free at Codecademy, which hosts a free hands-on Python course that takes an estimated 13 hours to complete. (Look for the link to the course catalog to find the Python course, and to see the many paths a coding career can take. You don’t need to upgrade to the paid Pro membership.)
Why Python? Because it’s one of the most in-demand languages today in many areas of computing, from recreational websites to serious data science. That’s why it’s also the highest-paying language to know for new engineers. Once you’ve learned one programming language, learning others is much easier. So you might as well start with the one that currently maximizes your opportunities.
To avoid feeling overwhelmed, start with just one hour of the tutorial. You’ll get an overview of concepts, and you’ll write and run your first simple Python program. That will give you a basic idea of how code works, and what a software development environment looks like.
Slow and steady learning will get you where you want to be. You’ll be spending a lot more time playing with Python — a lot, because coding is addictive rather than a chore. But before you do, there are some people you should meet.
Step 3: Follow Online Classroom Resources
Online resources like Youtube have thousands of videos searchable, from every programming lesson possible. From beginner to advance, help ease yourself into the world of programming with instructors and teaching styles of our choice.
Start with Jessica McKellar, an amazing Python developer who has a great class you can follow right along. Free courses like our 10-Day Crash Course are also a great start to the world of coding.
Congrats, you’re coding!
That’s it! You’ve taken your first steps into a new life, and already have new friends with whom to make the journey. You’ll also find them — and others — online. Stack Overflow is where you can talk about coding. GitHub is the go-to place to peruse and share working Python (and every other language) examples with other programmers. Both are also places where managers looking to hire new engineers look for promising candidates.
As you progress, you may want some classroom education. Hackbright offers a part-time Intro to Programming night course in San Francisco that runs five hours per week, for 12 weeks. You may find similar courses in your area.
Whatever you do, keep coding, whenever you have even a few minutes. Once you get rolling, it’s as addictive as Facebook. The more time you spend editing, running and debugging algorithms on your screen, the better — and better — you’ll get. Welcome to the club!
And lastly, apply for Hackbright Academy.
If you’re ready to change your career and become a coder or programmer, but don’t have the experience to get accepted into a bootcamp, apply for the Hackbright Prep by March 24. You’ll learn the foundations of programming, how to use necessary tools, and ultimately tackle the bootcamp application process. You’ll work with a one-on-one advisor to track your progress, create your own personal project, and expand your network in our community of like-minded women.
EXCLUSIVE SCHOLARSHIP OFFERS FOR OUR APRIL COURSES:
Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners is offering $1,000 scholarships | Apply here!
In honor of International Women’s Day this month, every student will receive a $500 scholarship for our Part-Time April courses!
