What I've been up to lately
So. It’s been a while since I wrote a post. Mostly because… well… I’ve been busy.
First off, I am proud to announce that I have joined Girl Develop It RDU as one of their new co-leader’s. It’s been a lot of fun organizing events, classes and engaging with other tech-minded women around the Triangle. I’ve already met some amazing women in my community and am proud to be part of such a diverse group. We have some really great classes lined up, one of which is an Introduction to Python class which started this week!
Another big venture I am helping to organize is a Teen Tech Camp in Durham, NC. Last year, I helped out with the first camp, which focused primarily on varying web technologies. After what I saw come out of the Young Coders tutorials at PyCon 2013, I thought the Teen Tech Camp would be a great avenue for teens in my area to learn Python programming on a Raspberry Pi. I helped write a grant proposal with other area volunteers (Sarah Kahn, Autumn Winters, Kurt Grandis + Clinton Dreisbach) to the Python Software Foundation to ask for assistance with funding for the main camp materials. We received notice a few weeks ago that the board accepted the proposal (THANK YOU PSF). The Teen Tech Camp is happening on August 13th at the Southwest Durham Regional Public library. There is still a lot of work to do, but I am so happy to be bringing something like the Young Coders tutorial to the Triangle!
I’ll also be leaving in a few weeks to speak at OSCON 2013 with my colleague, Mark Lavin. It is a real honor to be speaking at such a historic conference (celebrating it’s 15th year) and I am looking forward to learning a lot of new and interesting things.
AND, I am currently working on another talk for SecondConf 2013 in Chicago. It’s a talk I’ve been wanting to give for a while and am glad I’ll be giving it in one of my favorite cities!
Needless to say, I am pretty busy. But all-in-all, this busy-ness is enlivening, inspiring and these are all amazing things be a part of.
Plus, I just don’t think I could do it any other way.