October
October
Happy Monday, everyone, and I hope you had a great weekend jammin’ on your coursework! Major shout-out to @ngcao, @Eman_SWE, @EricE, @rainer.ra, @Tamar, @Vee, @tammy_628, @Surekha, and @AbdElRhman for being online to help your peers and answer questions!
If you were online for the Study Jam on Saturday and have NOT signed in, please do so now!
Only 5 people have posted costumes in the Halloween channel! That doesn’t make for a very fun competition, so I am extending the costume festivities until Halloween Day, which is Wednesday October 31.
most creative , best execution, and scariest). Winners from each category get a fun photo frame. I will look at photos and votes on Thursday morning, so I hope more people participate!!Now for new announcements, we’re going to kick off with an exciting update to launch your weeks…
The Career Resource Center is now live, and you can access it here.
We’re really excited to be rolling this out for you all. 82% of people who took the end of Challenge Course survey stated that the primary reason for them joining the scholarship was to grow in, pivot, or launch their careers in data science. The Career Resource Center was built to help you achieve those goals, and in it you can find:
In the next few days, we’re also going to be launching an initiative that allows all of YOU to share your stories with one another, since we know that many of the best resources and support have come from within this community. Keep an eye out for more on that, and for now, please take your time to explore the Career Resource Center.
NOTE regarding career project submissions
Like with any project, once you have passed, you will not have the option to resubmit. For this reason, we HIGHLY recommend completing the career projects after you have graduated from your Nanodegree. All the other resources are freely accessible, but you will get the most out of your career projects if you do them after you graduate. You will be able to submit your career materials for review for up to one month after graduation, so there is no need to rush to do this now!
Other Announcements and Updates:
McKinsey’s Datathon: The City Cup
Think of this like McKinsey’s version of a hackathon geared specifically towards data science students and young professionals! On Nov 17, come together with other aspiring data scientists to find solutions to complex issues using data.
There are three events in Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Zurich, but you do not need to live in/near those cities to participate, and travel/lodging/meals will be paid if you are accepted! Here are the requirements:
Big thanks to @annaDFND for sharing this opportunity!
Update re: Channel Requests
Channel requests via the form have been pretty slow, and action in lots of channels has also been slow, so I’m putting a pause on new channel creation for now!
That’s it for Monday, everyone. Enjoy the rest of your weeks!
Hi everyone! Happy Fri-yay!
I hope everyone is excited for tomorrow’s Study Jam! It is from 2pm-6pm UTC. Remember, this is YOUR time to make progress in your course and projects, get help from your peers, and set goals with one another.
During this time, some of your peers have volunteered to be available online to provide technical help. Major thanks to @Eman_SWE, @rainer.ra, @Tamar, @tammy_628, @Surekha, and @AbdElRhman for taking time out of your days to make sure that your peers have answers to any questions!
AND, don’t forget that this weekend we’re doing a COSTUME CONTEST!!!
In celebration of Halloween, please share your best costumes (from any event- it doesn’t have to be a halloween costume specifically!) in the #halloween channel, and vote on your favorites!
TO ENTER:
most creative (bonus points for data science-themed costumes!), one for best execution, and one for scariest. While you do not have to participate in the costume contest to participate in the Study Jam, I hope this gives you a little extra incentive to join your peers on Saturday, even if it’s only for an hour! Note: please ensure your costume follows the community guidelines and code of conduct!
As some inspiration, you may be gifted with a photo later of the Udacity Scholarships team in costume. Join #halloween if you want to see it!
I look forward to seeing everyone online tomorrow for the Study Jam, and as always, happy learning!!!
And, specifically for folks in DFND, @AbdElRhman has volunteered to lead a walk-through at 6pm UTC for P3. He will be covering a quick recap for the most tricky part of the lessons, a full project walk through, some tips and tricks for making a stand-out SQL project, and finally a live Q&A at the end.
He will be hosting this session in Zoom, so get ready for some great facetime with him and your peers!!
Greetings everyone, and I hope you all had a GREAT weekend!
Some reminders for this week:
This Saturday will be the second Study Jam of Phase 2, and to make studying on a Saturday a little more fun, there are going to be some added incentives to join your peers:
most creative (bonus points for data science-themed costumes!), one for best execution, and one for scariest. While you do not have to participate in the costume contest to participate in the Study Jam, I hope this gives you a little extra incentive to join your peers on Saturday, even if it’s only for an hour! Note: please ensure your costume follows the community guidelines and code of conduct!
When/where is the Study Jam? 2pm-6pm UTC in your track’s #live_help channel.
Can I help? YES!! Just like last time, if you’re able to help your peers on Saturday, please add your name and availability to this spreadsheet
You all voted over the weekend, and the new channels this week are #data_viz and #time_management. Head over to check those channels out, and don’t forget to request new channels here!
I’ve seen quit a few of you express interest in the PyTorch scholarship with Facebook- this is great! Friendly reminder that the deadline to apply is TOMORROW - learn more and apply here.
Happy Monday, everyone, and happy learning!
Hi everyone! I’ve been looking forward to this announcement for a while… so buckle your seatbelts and get ready for some exciting news
Based on the end of challenge course survey, 82% of you applied to the scholarship to grow, change, or start your careers.
To support you in pursuing your professional goals, and in response to requests and feedback from this community for additional career support, we’re excited to launch...
The Career Resource Center was created specifically for Bertelsmann Scholarship students, and is your hub for much of the information you’ll need to take your next career steps. You can come here to find:
The Career Resource Center will be launched next week, and I will share more information on when and how you can access your career projects then!
After the first Study Jam, 206 people submitted projects and we saw a 42% increase in course progress from the previous week! LET’S KEEP THE ENERGY GOING WITH STUDY JAM #2!
Below are the channels that were requested by at least two people over the past two weeks- please vote for the channels that you want to see by using the corresponding number emoji in response to this post. The top 2-4 channels with the most votes each week will be created on Monday, so please vote over the weekend!
NOTE: you do not need to fill out the form every week for the same channel; if you already suggested something, it will be considered in the next vote.
Reminder that you can sign up for a study buddy at any time- I’m matching new sign-ups throughout the week, so you should get paired with someone within a few days of signing up! I have seen some great conversations happening between buddies, and encourage anyone who wants a little extra push to sign up.
That’s it for this week- have a great weekend everyone, and I’ll see you back here Monday!
Hi everyone, and I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to treat yourselves a bit on Saturday!
There will be more to come later this week, but kicking off your weeks with…
Calling All Aspiring Movie Stars!
Are you ahead in your coursework? Itching to help other students out? Eager to prove your chops as the next Hollywood sensation? Ok, that last bit might be an exaggeration, BUT, I’m calling on you all to take your wonderful faces to the camera to help your peers via live help sessions in Zoom (or the video conferencing platform of your choice!)
Some questions you may have:
REMINDER re: UFest
*Join us live this coming weekend for Udacity Festival 2018,* a worldwide celebration of community and the audacity to create positive change - for yourself, your career, and your community.
Over two days of virtual Zoom sessions on October 20-21, connect with fellow alums and current students in career panel events and global, digital meetups for each “School” of Nanodegree programs. This is our chance to connect, share experiences, and gain insight into what it takes to advance careers.
>- *RSVP here:* https://udacityfestival.splashthat.com/
:interrobang:*Classroom Issues Over the Weekend*
There were some issues with submitting projects and processing graduations over the weekend- apologies if you were one of the students impacted! These issues have been resolved and you should be able to proceed with all coursework, but please email support@udacity.com if any of these issues continue.
I hope you all had great starts to your week, and I’ll see you back here later this week with more news and happenings!
Hi all, and happy Friday!! Before diving into announcements, reminder that tomorrow is a very special day that I hope you all find a way to participate in- October 13th is Treat Yo Self Day! You might remember this from Wellness Week in Phase 1, but tomorrow is the official day, so I hope you find a way to treat yourself that would make Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle proud.
Now, on to announcements…
Student Hub launched this week!
Some of you may have noticed that when you click the “study groups” icon in your classroom, things look a little different. Welcome to Student Hub, which you can use to:
Learn more about Student Hub on Udacity’s blog!
Clarification re: deadlines
Depending on your enrollment date in your Nanodegree, you may see different deadlines in your classroom than those that are on the calendar and website. While there is no penalty for missing project deadlines, all students must have submitted and passed all projects by the final deadline for their course in order to graduate from their Nanodegree. Please refer to the final deadlines posted on the website - these are the same for all students regardless of enrollment date:
Phase 2 resources and initiatives
Please take advantage of the following to help you progress in your Nanodegree:
one thousand external resources collected in our fully searchable and sortable Airtable, and you can add more here. Folks waiting for a reply from Dan
We are aware some folks are still waiting for a response from Dan, and we appreciate your patience! Dan is getting a lot of emails and is doing his best to give each message thorough consideration before sending a response. If you have emailed him directly, you will get a response, but it might take more than a day or two. Again, thank you for your patience!
That’s it for this week- I hope everyone has a GREAT weekend treating yourselves and I’ll see you back here on Monday!
Hi everyone, and happy Tuesday! Apologies for getting your weekly kick-off announcement out a day late! Please read through for some updates for this week, as well as some highlights from last week.
Study Jam on October 6
Thanks to everyone for joining Saturday’s Study Jam, and huge thanks to our Study Jam leaders, @Abhipsa, @geomars, @SABRIO, @Fahad, @Abu Adam, @AbdElRhman, @Vee, @annaDFND, @rocrastinator, @Amisha Rawat, @Bernardo_DS, @Alex, @mtdmagid, @Du3aaaa, @Mfiras, and @Eman_SWE. It sounds like the first Study Jam got a slow start, but I’m excited to share some pretty cool stats with you from the weekend!
Our next Study Jam will be on Saturday, October 27 - mark your calendars, and expect some awesome Halloween themes.
Phase 2 Student Leaders
Your Phase 2 Student Leaders are here! While not all channels have leaders, the #live_help channels all have support, along with other key channels like #career_resources, #motivation, and #general_discuss. Find a list of leaders by channel here.
New Channels
The votes are in from the last two weeks of channel requests, and based on your feedback, I have added #analytics_edge, #career_change, #group_projects, and #russian_speakers. Happy collaborating!
Deadlines this week
Remember that every track has a deadline this week- please see below for yours!
Please note that depending on your enrollment date, you might see slightly different dates in your classroom
That’s it for today, and I’ll be back on Friday with more updates/announcements to close off your week! Happy learning!
Hi everyone, and happy Friday! I missed you all earlier this week, and appreciate your ongoing patience as I get caught up on DMs! Please read through for some important announcements to end your week, including a final reminder about…
FIRST STUDY JAM SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6
Tomorrow is the FIRST study jam of the Bertelsmann scholarship! For those of you in other scholarships, you may be familiar with study jams, and I’m excited to bring them to this community.
If you join, please fill out this brief form. This helps me understand how many people are attending Study Jams, and whether they are helping students make progress.
Channel Requests
Today is the second channel request vote over the past two weeks, you’ve all shared your suggestions for channels to make this workspace more productive and meet your needs.
Below are the channels that were requested by at least two people; if you don’t see yours on here, it probably means that you were the only one who suggested it, so if you know that others are interested, please encourage them to fill out the form too!
NOTE: you do not need to fill out the form every week for the same channel; if you already suggested something, it will be considered in the next vote.
Please vote for the channels that you want to see by using the corresponding number emoji in response to this post. The top 2-4 channels with the most votes each week will be created on Monday, so please vote over the weekend!
Redeeming 25% Discounts
We have gotten some questions about using the 25% discounts from the career content in Phase 1; if the link in your classroom is not working, please enter UMLQQH8UEGEQPLZ in the discount code box at checkout. This should appear for anyone enrolling in term 2 NDs also. We hope this streamlines the process for anyone trying to apply their discount!
Study Buddies
If you filled out the study buddy form before this morning, you should have been paired with another student or two. There are a handful of folks whose availability doesn’t quite align with anyone else’s yet, so if you haven’t heard from me, please be patient and I’ll work on getting you paired with someone ASAP!
If you haven’t filled the form out yet, then it’s not too late! Study buddies will be paired on a rolling basis, so while sooner is better than later, I encourage you to sign up to be paired at any point in the scholarship and I’ll work on getting you matched within a few days.
Form here
That’s it for now, and I am excited to see what you all accomplish over the weekend during the Study Jam. I will be sharing some data with you all next week so you can see your collective impact!
Hi all, sending two quick plugs on your Friday eves!
If you’re interested in having a little extra support and accountability, please sign up for a study buddy here!
We still have space on Saturday during our first-ever Study Jam for anyone interested in providing technical support! BAND in particular is looking a little lonely!
If you have an hour or two to spare on Saturday and will be working on your course anyway, please consider signing up for a slot to help your peers! This is a casual, low-stress way to help others while cementing your own understanding of the course material, so it’s a win-win for everyone involved!
Happy Monday everyone, and more importantly, HAPPY OCTOBER! October is my most favorite month of the year, in part because it culminates with my favorite holiday, Halloween!!
REMINDER: Kathleen OOO today through Wednesday!
I will be out of the office today through Wednesday, returning on Thursday, in order to attend the annual CMX Summit, where I’ll be meeting hundreds of other Community Managers and experts in the field to learn more about successful community engagement strategies. I hope to bring some great ideas back to this community!
ROLLING OUT: Study Buddies
Are you looking for an accountability buddy or someone to help you work through the course material? I’m excited to roll out study buddies to make your collaboration easier! Read on for more details:
As an added incentive, folks who fill out the form by end of day Thursday will be able to connect with their buddy in time for…
STUDY JAM #1!
Remember that the first Study Jam is this Saturday, October 6! it will be from 2pm-6pm UTC in each track’s #live_help channel. This is designated time for you to make progress and submit projects (remember, you all have a project due the following week!), so don’t miss an opportunity to benefit from your peers’ knowledge.
UPDATE: Student Leader Applications closed!
Thank you to everyone who applied to be a Student Leader! I will be looking through everyone’s responses this week and notifying the community about who the Student Leaders are for each channel in Monday’s announcement, so stay tuned!
That’s it for today, everyone. Happy Monday, happy October, and happy learning!