Tuesday Night with Local Nerdettes

I would like to talk about yet another meetup that I attended with the Girl Develop It (GDI) non-profit organization. ¹ This time, it’s much closer to my home— in Oakland. This would be the second time that I have attended a GDI event, as I have attended my first one last year, also back in February in Downtown San Jose. GDI Oakland is the third chapter of GDI located here in the beloved San Francisco Bay Area, and it was established sometime in the early last year. Unfortunately, the chapter became inactive for awhile, and I joined the Oakland chapter a little too late.

Of course, until that night (2/28/17), GDI Oakland is relaunching, starting with tonight’s Meet & Greet. I couldn’t miss this opportunity, simply because the meeting was more of an introduction to the chapter and GDI altogether. I’ve joined GDI through Meetup back in 2014 but never had the time or chance to actually attend a GDI session or a GDI-sponsored class. I’m really amazed at the things you can do at GDI other than learning how to code in all levels.

Several volunteer (some are paid!) opportunities are open for anyone interested so that this budding chapter grows. A lot of them consist of teaching assistants, teachers/instructors, coordinators, sponsors/donors, and future chapter leaders who can open up a new GDI chapter in their local areas. After taking some notes (on my laptop) of GDI’s mission and goals, I knew, just like with the San Jose chapter last year, that I would definitely fit into this group of strong, passionate, smart women. I’m interested in becoming at teaching assistant, and eventually become a teacher, while at the same time, be a student on some aspects of coding that I really want to conquer. ² I’ve learned so many things not mentioned in the GDI website, such as Sass, Emmet, Markdown, Foundation (framework), etc. that I feel that I could become an instructor one day and teach a few classes on these concepts mentioned.

But, in order to become a teacher, one must be a student first. Therefore, GDI’s instructor process is to have those interested be a student first. Then from there, you can become a teaching assistant/TA. Just hearing about the volunteer opportunities available really excite me, and here is a great chance for me to earn some experience with what I have learned in web development for future job opportunities. I also enjoyed listening to the stories of the presenters and it’s a joy to see the chapter leaders from the San Francisco chapter of GDI helping out with the meet & greet too. There were also representatives from various tech companies such as LinkedIn who are also current GDI members. The majority of those who came were from out of state who recently moved to the Bay Area in hopes of obtaining their dream job in the tech industry, with much more accessible and affordable education for them to make their smooth transit. There are also locals who have never touched code all their lives and want to make a career change. There are also people like me, who want to hone our current skills as well as learning new ones, while at the same time, gaining more experience that would prepare us to make that huge step into our dream careers by doing something professionals would do: helping others succeed. Finally, there were also male participants, students from Learner’s Guild (the ones hosting this event), who are also interested with volunteering opportunities, such as becoming teaching assistants and instructors, as well as coordinators and donors. The more, the merrier, I say!

I’m truly am looking forward to the upcoming plans and the future of GDI Oakland. I’ve mingled with a few of the people who were there, and got business cards from the chapter leaders. I do plan on sharing them what I do as part of my self-learning process in web development and programming, such as sharing this blog, for example. I also plan on sharing my collective too. I also started looking up meetup.com to see if there are any other local groups leaning in the tech industry that I can join and participate. In that way, I can finally add something new when I finally start revamping my current portfolio.

More to come once GDI Oakland begins their activities, and I’ll be sure to report them as we go along. 😊