Microsoft organized the philanthropic hackathon to support local nonprofits with much-needed development help and help their employees give back to the community. As a way to encourage new developers and give them more direct access to mentors and seasoned programmers, Microsoft opened their doors to several Code Fellows graduates and invited them to join two teams at the event.
Luay Younus, an ASP.NET graduate who worked on a platform that aims to end human trafficking, shared his thoughts on the hackathon. “Our workflow was instructed by Microsoft employees and we were able to accomplish a huge amount of work in just a couple of days. My participation is still ongoing and I am happy to keep working on the product to make it better for others to use.”
Katherine Hanson and Rob Reed, two other graduates who participated, highlighted how much they benefited from working with a nonprofit. They contributed to a project for a local hospital that wanted to connect parents to a global network of resources through an online portal, facilitating better care for their children.
“I enjoyed knowing that the product I worked on can help solve a dire, widespread problem, and I met a lot of cool folks there. I would definitely do it again,” Katherine shared.
Participating in hackathons and getting access to prominent tech companies is one of the many services included in our Career Accelerator Program, which graduates are invited to join once they successfully complete a Code 401 course. This benefit helps graduates make connections in the industry, work with more experienced developers, and learn more about the inner workings of a development team.
“The event was well organized and a lot of fun,” Rob shared about hackathon. “It was inspiring to see how many talented people there are out there working together to achieve something bigger.”
Mike McCarter, a Hack for Good project leader at Microsoft who worked with several of our graduates during the hackathon, was impressed with the team’s coordination and initiative.
“We really enjoyed working with four Code Fellows graduates during the hackathon,” Mike shared. “They tackled one of our most critical work items, and we were really impressed by the way they joined forces and supported one another. We look forward to continuing to volunteer with these individuals and other Code Fellows graduates in the future.”
Well done again to the graduates who participated, and thank you to our friends at Microsoft who extended the invitation to work with your engineers and support local nonprofits!
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