One of my main goals for this school year is to explore my passions and to better prioritize my time based on the value I see in different things. I have the momentum to do almost everything that I want to at the moment, but this momentum might not last forever so I’ll take advantage of this while I still can.
As September went on, I’ve discovered one key thing that matters to me— communities. The tech community fuels my passion for the industry, and here are some events / things that happened this past month that helped me realize this:
1) I started my internship at SAP!
I just started as a Full-Stack Developer Intern at SAP. I am on the SAP Jam team, working on our very own enterprise social collaboration platform. Beyond the beautiful office and the free coffee ☕️, what makes this internship special is the Internship Experience Project. This program recognizes value beyond the work you do at SAP. It gives you the opportunity to easily schedule 1:1 with company executives, matches you up with a compatible mentor and regularly hosts intern social and networking events (including hackathons, conferences and summits)! I’m excited to see what’s in store for my next few months here.
2) Hack the North 💖
Hack the North never disappoints. As a community who is constantly pushing the boundaries of hackathons, I feel honoured to have been a part of this incredible event for the second year in a row. From Justin Trudeau, our Prime Minister kicking off the hackathon to late night poutine and beavertails, Hack the North took one big step for growing the Canadian / global hacker community.
There were lots of different meet ups happening to celebrate the diversity of students showing up at Hack the North. I also had the opportunity to sit in on the Diversity & Inclusion Panel held by Tracy Chou, Jennifer Dewalt and Cat Noone. It was one of the best Q&A panels I’ve participated in.
My teammates (Daniel, Payton and Chetan) are the best. This team reminded me of why I fell in love with hackathons in the first place. They were so kind. Their sense of humour and sarcasm was what got me through the nights. My favourite part was definitely the night before submission time— one of my teammates was determined to get the Spotify API working before he slept, but the rest of us were prepared to slip into dreamland. Instead of just going to sleep, we all stayed up to cheer him on because we knew how much it meant to him. It was humbling to have worked on JukeBAUX with them.
3) WWCode ft. Slack 👯
I had the opportunity to visit the Slack office with Women Who Code Vancouver. Brenda Jin, Roo Harrigan and Jen Long from Slack SF spoke about their journeys through the tech field, and we even got to see some live coding from Roo! The sense of joy I felt after the event made me realize how much I loved the community of women that I’ve successfully surrounded myself with.
That's all for now, I'll keep you posted on what I get up to next! Until next time!
