Meggie Mahnken is the Vice President of Education at Hackbright Academy. A Hackbright alumna, Meggie became an internal tools software engineer after graduation, eventually returning to Hackbright as an instructor. She is now responsible for hiring and training the education staff, overseeing curriculum development, and serves on Hackbright’s Leadership Team.

How did you learn about Hackbright? What drew you to Hackbright?

A friend at the time worked nearby, and recommended software engineering to me as a career he thought I would enjoy. He was right! I was drawn to Hackbright because it was a supportive and accommodating space for women.

What’s your favorite Hackbright memory?

My favorite Hackbright memory is giving a lecture on jQuery early on in my teaching career here. jQuery was something that was really hard for me to learn, so I was so excited to be able to help others not get stuck on the things I got stuck on.

What’s your top advice for new students?

Stay focused. Pick one language and master the basics. Remember to code every single day – muscle memory is key.

What’s your favorite teaching moment?

My favorite teaching moment is when students are in the advanced phases of their final projects, and they think of a feature that they’d like to build and bring it to fruition completely independently. When new software engineers realize that literally anything is possible, it’s an incredibly inspiring and meaningful moment of empowerment.

What do you love most about coding?

I love that it’s such a relevant creative skill. I also love debugging – the language and tone of error messages is fascinating. It’s also incredibly satisfying to build things. It’s addicting.

What else should we know about you?

I started doing ballet as an adult about four years ago. I’ve come a long way and learned a ton. There are a lot of parallels between learning to code and learning ballet. For me, going to ballet class is a consistent reminder of what it feels like to be a student, and how to be an excellent teacher. I have a few really amazing ballet teachers who are a great inspiration.

Allian graduated from Cal Poly with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating Hackbright in March 2016 she went on to develop manufacturing web applications at GE Digital. She re-joined Hackbright as a Prep TA, and now teaches for the Part-Time Program.

What drew you to Hackbright?

My first exposure to a bootcamp was a Dev Bootcamp YouTube ad back in 2015. The ad piqued my interest, and I started researching bootcamps. As soon as I learned about Hackbright and attended an Info Session, I knew I wanted to do the program. I came from a male-dominated industry (mechanical engineering) where in class/work I was sometimes the only woman in a group. I wanted to be at Hackbright to surround myself with talented women that could be my friends/role-models. Best experience ever.

What’s your favorite Hackbright moment?

As a TA in the Prep Class, I was so elated the day the students presented their final projects to their friends, family, classmates. They challenged themselves, had fun in the process, and learned so much. The demos were awesome, and I could tell they were proud of their work.

What’s your top advice for new students?

I remind students that engineering is about two fundamental things: being curious about how things work, and loving to solve problems. The fact that a person has made it into the Prep Class or Part- or Full-Time Program means they’re already an engineer. The rest is merely learning the tools that will help them solve problems efficiently. Don’t doubt yourself – you’re already an engineer.

What’s your favorite teaching moment?

I love debugging, and I love helping students learn to debug their own code. I try to impart the feeling that’s it a game and we’re following the clues left behind by the computer to find the source of the error. That moment when we find the bug, and get working code, the tension breaks and there’s a huge sigh of relief and triumph. I love that!

What do you love most about coding?

It’s a language that we use to control machines – how cool is that?! There are so many amazing applications and it’s fun/challenging/rewarding to learn different programming languages and tools.

Anything else you want to share?

I am not the archetypal engineer. I didn’t grow up building robots, no one in my family is an engineer. I simply liked math, science, physics, and wanted to learn more about how things work. I was lucky that I was able to pursue engineering in college and had the support of my family. I know there are marginalized people out there who are curious about software engineering and they need a little boost of confidence and reassurance to dive in and start pursuing it. I am on a mission to empower those people to be unapologetically technical and become software engineers, no matter what their background is. That’s why I love and work at Hackbright. I’m all in.

Seema starting mentoring at Hackbright when she moved to San Francisco. Two of her joys lie in teaching and programming, which she combines in teaching the Prep Program. She’s passionate about improving diversity in technology.

How did you learn about Hackbright?

I first got involved with Hackbright as a mentor. I was especially drawn to the mission of changing the ratio of diversity in engineering and technology.

What’s your favorite Hackbright memory?

Seeing student demos is always incredibly rewarding and inspiring and I am constantly impressed.

What’s your top advice for new students?

Don’t doubt yourself– you got this!

What’s your favorite moment as a teacher?

Explaining concepts to students and seeing it finally make sense to them is always amazing and my favorite teaching moment.

What do you love most about programming?

Solving problems that can improve people’s lives.