Hackathons inspire: why i’m ready to learn to code

This past month, Bandwidth sponsored two student-led hackathons: UNC’s Pearl Hacks and NCSU’s Diamond Hacks- both promoting women in the tech industry. Hackathons encourage an environment where students of all skillsets can listen in on talks and participate in coding workshops. Students devote their weekend to mentorship, program creation and learning while indulging in catered food and swag giveaways. Attendees can also network with sponsors and excel in their personal tech projects while hacking away overnight.

As I continue to expand my horizons and become more involved at Bandwidth, I figured the most effective way to embrace the ‘Bandwidth way’ is to volunteer at the local events, plus who wouldn’t want to be sporting company swag?

Bandwidth truly made an impact at both events. I volunteered at Pearl Hacks at UNC Chapel Hill and met many talented women striving to learn and master new programs. The Bandwidth sponsor table was decked out with awesome goodies but our sleeping masks turned out to be the cool, hip swag everyone wanted!

The Bandwidth team came equipped with sleeping masks, stickers, pens and more!

…and let’s not forget our baller gift baskets including Visa gift cards, t-shirts, chocolate, stationary and more!

Volunteering at the sponsor fair allowed me to learn from students and also represent the Bandwidth name. My key takeaway from volunteering was the sudden inspiration I had to learn about coding and computer science. Seeing young women challenge themselves in a field that is predominantly male gave me the power to elevate my capabilities and learn a skill that will further my success in the tech industry.

As of now, I am using free learning tools online like Codecademy.com and Bandwidth’s Learning Spot to learn the foundation of coding. I was completely unaware of how many coding languages are utilized and I’ve found that learning tools have really simplified coding so those without computer science backgrounds can still fully grasp the use and purpose.

It’s times like this where I truly appreciate the resources and community around Bandwidth. Hackathons are a great way to educate our younger generation and building the hype around something so technical yet vital to the modern world is crucial; even a brand management grad can do it!