I haven’t always been interested in learning about technology and software engineering. Sure, I appreciated it for what it can do for me, but rarely thought of it as anything more than a tool to assist me in my daily life. It wasn’t until I volunteered in Mexico for a year that I saw how through technology I could impact other people’s lives and support social justice issues.
I worked with Permanencia Voluntaria, a small non-profit archive that preserves films created by Mexican directors. While working for them I used Wix.com to create a webpage to help spread the word about its existence. It was a neat tool that allowed me to make a webpage through already established templates. I was proud of what I made, elated by the praise my boss gave me, and thrilled by the influx of support we received simply by having a bigger online presence.
However I was frustrated by how boxed in I was with the tool and desired the freedom to be more creative with the design, but at the time I didn’t have the tools or knowledge to do anything more with it. It wasn’t until a few years later that I discovered Career Karma who directed me to all sorts of free online resources to learn how to code. Once I started dabbling in it, I started seeing and dreaming of the possibilities of how I could make webpages of my own design to fulfill the needs of a person or group.
I am excited to begin my journey to learn software engineering. It’s a field that will allow me to continuously learn, face challenges, and use problem solving to resolve those challenges. The web is an unimaginably powerful tool to spread knowledge and support social justice movements, and I can’t wait to be a part of it!