After school today, my dad and I went to various stores that sell cupcakes for donations or discounts on cupcakes. Some of the stores we checked out included Harris Teeter, Giant, Red Velvet Cupcakery and Georgetown Cupcake.
I brought with me a flier for Cupcakes 'n Code and the design I wanted. All of the stores simply wanted me to email their managers the details and how many cupcakes I wanted (50). I was so content with how kind everybody was towards my event and they personally wanted to know more to spread the word for me. I will update soon with the final design and from whom I get my cupcakes catered from.
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You wouldn't believe it, but I asked my mom to post a blurb about my Cupcakes 'n Code event with the registration link on Facebook and it blew up!
In simply 24-hours, I went from 0 to 30 registrants. So much so, that I had to disable the registration! Additionally, a lot of people who have children that are too young or too old for my event are offering to volunteer or sponsor cupcake donations! I couldn't have asked for a better community that is so open to this new idea.
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So, as part of the application for the She++ fellowship summit, we are given the opportunity to either write about our initiative or make a video. Since I can show better than I can tell, I decided to make a video.
One of my awesome friends, Melanie, gave me some pro tips today on how to video edit using iMovie (you should check out her capstone here). I hope I can pull off a cool looking video that effectively portrays my ideas before the 30th (when the application is due). Wish me luck! Just created a poster for my upcoming event! I am just about ready to start hanging these up in various places around my community. Instead of posting these in places kids would look, I'm posting them where parents would, because they are the ones signing them up. Also, my community has an active Facebook page that most parents are on, so I will definitely be making a post on there soon! I really hope I get a good amount of interest. Through my #include fellowship, I was assigned a mentor- who is so awesome! She will also be filling the role as my capstone mentor throughout this process.
Her name is Samm and she is a sophomore in college! We chatted via Google Hangouts for the first time today, despite our constant email chains since November. She has been super helpful in terms of ideas as well as support. I recorded our video call, however the audio portion of the footage seems to be missing- so I don't know what's up with that, so enjoy this screen-cap of Samm telling me loads of cool ways I can beef up my website and promote my event. Feeling discouraged.
So my She++ fellowship has a portion of it where any fellow can apply for a 3 day all expense paid trip to San Francisco to attend a summit. Apparently it's super awesome and you can met tech icons like Sheryl Sandberg (my all time hero- her book is amazing) and tour companies like Apple and Google. However, only 30 fellows from across the nation are chosen to go. I am working so hard to make my first event a success and for all the girls to have a great time! Today, I went to my local library to inquire about using their "maker mill" (technology room) to host the event, but was turned down. It's okay though- just a bump in the road! My goals for this event are multiplying, I can't wait to see how far this will go and how great of an impact it has on our community! It's been a while since I last blogged, but for a good reason. I have been developing my capstone idea and it's finally here- Cupcakes 'n Code!
The reason I decided on this as the name of my initiative is because it combines eating delicious cupcakes with learning code: two awesome things I can't live without. My hopes are that the cupcakes are a sweet incentive for this awesome coding party that I am hosting, encouraging girls to mix code with their other passions! Oh yes, I did think of this idea while I was eating the most delicious Georgetown Cupcake, 10/10 would recommend. So... I hacked for 24 hours nonstop yesterday and I got a bunch of ideas for my capstone. Win-win, am I right?
I competed at a hackathon called Technica at UMD College Park- an all girl hackathon. It was one of the most amazing events I have ever been to. Never in my life have I ever seen a room of girls so eager to learn and take on new challenges. Everyone was desperately working up until the 24 hour mark, determined to finish their projects for judging. Now you're probably wondering what a hackathon even is? No, not that type of hacking. A hackathon is when programmers meet to do collaboratively program to innovate. And yes, it is the best thing ever. I realized that to make my capstone more fun, I should make it more of a collaborative experience rather than just a simple workshop where I teach and the girls listen. Technica was fun because we learned from mentors as well as from each other. I will definitely take that into consideration as I develop my final project! If you're wondering what I did at the hackathon, my app did get interviewed by a tech magazine: catch my interview here. First of all, welcome! I hope you decide to stick around and explore, hopefully my capstone will ignite your own passions too.
In my high school, all seniors are given the opportunity to execute something called a "capstone project". The capstone "is designed to encourage students to think critically, solve challenging problems, and develop skills such as oral communication, public speaking, research skills, media literacy, teamwork, planning, self-sufficiency, and goal setting—i.e., skills that will help prepare them for college, modern careers, and adult life. In most cases, the projects are also interdisciplinary, in the sense that they require students to apply skills or investigate issues across many different subject areas or domains of knowledge." So, what's my passion? This used to be a hard question, but I know that my passion lies in encouraging girls to code, teaching girls how to code, etc. This is why I want to intertwine my senior capstone project with my She++ #include fellowship (more details at: sheplusplus.org/include/). The #include fellowship works to empower underrepresented groups in technology by dismantling negative stereotypes surrounding technical careers. Everything is pretty much up in the air right now, but I'll check back in when my idea comes together. |
TanyaJust a techie teen spreading around the coding superpower. Archives
June 2017
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