Student Spotlight
Meet the students who stood out and inspired us with their stories
Find all the previously featured students in our Student Spotlight Archive!
WEEK 34
Lauren Moineau
@laurenM | AND | https://github.com/ellemwano
As our last student spotlight of the scholarship program (can you believe it?!) we have a very special, and very requested student, Lauren Moineau.
Lauren has been an active and helpful community member since day one. She's been dedicated to maintaining the community as an strong environment of learning and growth, especially in her role as a student leader. Not to mention, she is always available to help her fellow students with questions.
Lauren and a group of other students in various tracks ( Mikhail Pontus, AND; Oya Canli-Somer, ABND; Greta Grigute, ABND; Cedric Fontaine| FEND; and Alain Cadenat FEND) created a project repo so that folks in the scholarship can share their work. It's truly something to see everyone's hard work and creativity in one place.
“We’re building a phenomenal professional network. Still being connected to these amazing people now the program is almost over gives me strength and a sense of belonging to a community where everyone truly inspires me by their accomplishments!"
Thank you Lauren! Read on the get the full story.
Tell us a little about yourself. Where are you from?
I'm Lauren and I currently live in France (my "roots" country, as I call it), mainly studying at the moment. I love love love traveling and exploring new places, especially as a working resident. So far, I've lived in the UK (London), New Zealand, Egypt and Spain, doing jobs as exciting (or not) as front-desk manager, scuba-diving instructor or language teacher. I'll let you mix and match.
Did you have any coding experience prior to this course? What is your technical background?
Not much, no. I have a BSc in Psychology (with Criminology), so a lot of decoding (minds) but not much coding. Plenty of problem solving though. I did the first 2 projects of the FEND a few years back, about 1/3 of the ABND free courses and a couple of online Java courses before I started tackling the AND 9 months ago.
What impact on your life has this Scholarship had professionally and/or personally? What has your Scholarship helped you accomplish?
Professionally, I can't really tell right now but it definitely taught me the skills to start a brand new career. Personally, what can I say, this community is everything. I've learned just as much, if not more, from all the skilled, creative and truly inspiring people I've met these past few months than from the course itself. They all helped me grow both as a person and a developer. I can't thank them enough.
What advice would you give to other students who are finding it difficult to make progress?
The road is bumpy but it's meant to be, that way you can truly enjoy the moments when you feel like the Master of the Coding Universe... before you go right back down to level 0 again. It's a roller coaster, we've all been there. Just don't give up and take baby steps on those bad days: they matter too. You can also watch videos or listen to podcasts as you commute to work, read articles or coding books as you wait for an appointment or in a queue. Those cat videos will just have to wait.
What do you do to relax when you're not working on your Nanodegree?
Relax? I am on Slack 24/7! Jokes aside, I haven't really taken time to truly relax for a while now. But I usually go hiking, do pilates or yoga and observe the tiny species around us thanks to macrophotography. I'm not great at it, but I love exploring that whole new world and I find these creatures quite fascinating. So yes, I guess I look at bugs on my free time too.
What's next for you once you graduate?
I've just graduated so now I will complete the career part of the course to be ready for the job hunt. I might take a day or 2 off, then start the 100-day-of-code challenge to keep up the pace. I've also got lots of articles and books to read that I've put aside these past few months, along with a few concepts I want to learn, starting with Kotlin and Firebase.
What is your favorite movie/TV show?
Hard to choose. I saw Monty Python and the Holy Grail for the nth time recently. I can watch those Monty Python movies again and again, they'll always make me laugh. As for TV series, I've really enjoyed Peaky Blinders lately.