Winning Stories
Student's Stories - Winners 🎉
Anayolsin Then's Story
Deciding to quit med school is the hardest thing I have ever done, but also the best of things because it led me to this path.
It all started when someone close to me suggested I pursue programming as a career: my husband. At the time, he was preparing to take a logical reasoning test as part of a job application, so I soon became his study buddy. The test consisted of 30 questions in 30 minutes; accuracy and efficiency were the keys to success. We spent weeks doing logic and reasoning exercises. He was surprised at the ease with which I would find the patterns and solve the problems. He kept saying that finding patterns is an essential skill in programming. That got me thinking I had something I was already good at - and had fun doing -that I could explore and cultivate to find a brand new profession.
This, combined with the number of ads about women and people of color in tech that started to turn up on my phone, gave me the courage to apply to this program. Citi sponsorship specifically spoke to me because, during 2020, I took an interest in personal finance and the stock market, so I thought I could use what I had learned at a financial institution like Citi.
I was accepted; I completed the challenge phase, and I was excited about what was to come. Lessons got more and more complex. Learning a new set of skills from scratch, wanting to get my projects just right, keeping up with community initiatives, and dealing with the responsibilities of my full-time job, required a significant effort to keep up with program deadlines.
Now that we’re approaching graduation, I remember to be gracious to me by recognizing how far I’ve come. Before Udacity’s Web Programming Nanodegree, I knew nothing about being a programmer. Now, I have produced thousands of lines of code, a portfolio with real-life programs that I fully understand how they work, and the skills to apply in future projects. I’m constantly thinking about the logic and tools used on the apps I use daily. I’m also aware of different tools and technologies I should continue to learn after completing this nanodegree. I know it's only the beginning, and more significant challenges are yet to come.
My life-long goals are enjoyment and fulfillment. For me, that means taking care of people and my community. As developers, I believe we have the opportunity to indirectly reach a broader audience and change their life for the better with revolutionary, sustainable work.
Ebillson Grand Jean's Story
My name is Ebillson GRAND JEAN, I was born in 1997 in a city called Carrefour in Haiti. During my high school years I was mostly passionate about the art of public speaking although I was also good at other subjects at school. Because of my passion for public speaking, I took part to several debate tournaments representing my club at both national and regional stages and won a couple of prizes. My first real experience with Computer Science began in 2013 when I traveled to the USA with a Team made of Haitian students from different high schools to take part to the Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Annual Conference and Competition. Back then, Haiti had an FBLA Local Chapter. I prepared and registered for the Computer Applications Competition and during that process, even though I didn’t win the prize for the Haitian Team, I learned a lot. After being awarded a scholarship, I studied from 2015 to 2019 and graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Computer Science. And while I was entering the professional stage I decided I wanted to be a Software Engineer. Therefore I took many online classes in Web Development especially. From 2017 to 2021, I worked on several projects for different companies. In 2020, I was hired as a Developer at Banque de la République d’Haïti (or BRH, Haiti’s Central Bank) but later in July 2021 I decided to move to the United States of America because I was looking for better opportunities as Haiti got into a growing crisis (especially since 2018). It turned out that moving to the USA, things were not exactly as I would imagine, I needed to find jobs quickly so I got a minimum salary job at an electronic devices company and after almost a year there I realized I needed to get back to my profession which Software Engineering and that is when I ran into a Facebook Udacity Ad about a paid Co-op with Citi. When I clicked I saw that Udacity and Citi were offering the opportunity to receive a Web Programming Scholarship and that I could get hired by Citi after graduating the class, so I applied. After the first phase I was selected among a few students for the second phase. It was a way for me to get back to basics but also to learn more about some Programming Advanced Concepts. After a few months, I graduated the Web Programming class and now I am eligible to a Developer Role at Citi. Hopefully, in a matter of days, I might get that Role at Citi and this prospect makes me happy and proud of the journey I embarked on a few months ago. I can say that the learning journey was really amazing and I can say that Udacity opened the gates of my professional career in the USA as a Developer.
Ibrahima S. Berry's Story
1.I am African came to the US in 2008 and learned my ESL(English as a second language),worked in computer repair with A+ certifcation, restaurant ,before the program i was a taxi driver UBER,LYFT,YELLOW in New York city
As a result of the program, i am so happy to learn all this topic from Udacity nano degree program HTML/CSS/JS/JAVA/SQL/NOSQL which is in demand for today job search in the IT field and i am confident now i can join any software company around the world and work with them.
2.The obstacle was just about the time schedule of the program to be able to learn everyday .I try to put on my calendar the time to learn and push myself to be on time just for 1-3 hours a day for the program a few week later the love to learn come to me, since i keep learning everyday.
The motivation channel and all the Udacity team are there to push me every week to achieve something in progress with the course.
3.The love and passion to learn the software engineer field lead me to the City Scholarship program and for carrier change.
Having the chance to learn from Udacity with this city scholarship was a dream for me because it can't be easy without this scholarship program.
4.I would like to be a software engineer or data analyst for a company where i can continue building projects and help to change the world.
The course i learned with practices at Udacity is very helpful and important for my carrier change ,before becoming a software engineer for company, i will always remember. I was a UDACIOUS student.
I would like to Thank all the Udacity Team which help me to be who i am to day and who i will be tomorrow.
Ibrahima S Barry
e-mail:ciebaisf@gmail.com
Israel Ahanbare's Story
Brief Story of my Journey into Tech
It is during my mandatory National Youth Service I saw the picture of becoming web developer in the year 2021 when I started my basic coding with my mobile smart phone. I am a passionate lover of tech. Before graduating I was already working and freelancing as a graphic designer with institutions and organizations since high school, I graduated from the polytechnic in Nigeria with an Associate Degree in Accounting. I got the reality check about how things happen in an actual industry setting.
My first coding experience started when I saw the passion to advance in my career, I was opportune to attend a 3-week coding Bootcamp so as to make it into a Software Engineering Institute where I sat for a rigorous exam. I passed the exam among other selected candidate, but I couldn’t meet or accept the offer to begin my journey in Programming as it requires me to get a sponsor for a huge sum of money which I will in turn pay back after getting a job I was not initially or properly informed about that. I and my family couldn’t afford it so all hope was dashed.
There I began to search for opportunity to learn programming skill for free with scholarship and more, I was really determined and passionate about it. Not until I secure my first scholarship when I was searching for opportunity, there I stumbled upon Udacity platform issuing Cloud developing scholarship on Microsoft Azure sponsored by Bartelmann, I was selected for the preface of the program but was not selected for the Nanodegree program. There I got a scholarship with Data camp to learn Data Science for 6 months. There I learn so many things and how to use SQL, Advanced Excel, python for data science. Also got a Financial Aid from Google Course on Coursera for UI/UX design and have already designing and creating product.
How Udacity Nanodegree program made my life more Beautiful
So, I never gave up, I keep on stumbling on Udacity platform for opportunity so as to gain free access to their Nanodegree programme on web development. “My dream is to become a successfully product designer with good Font End Developing Skill”.
Not until one day I came across this opportunity with Citi offering scholarship to eligible participant. I quickly hop in it and send in my application. I got accepted into the program preface; I participated and engage in the slack channel, finish up with the course program, took the filtration Assessment and connect with fellow colleagues.
Wow, I was so surprised to be selected among the top 100 best candidate for the program for 7month Full Stack web development. Then I had an accident was in the hospital bed, I almost ran out screaming but couldn’t express the joy and I was restricted on my bed.
Studying with Udacity has really impacted much on me, the project, task, session, and mentorship. There I got to know the importance of writing good HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Java and SQL codes and decided to invest time in learning them.
After considering many online courses, I finally found myself in love and acquainted with Udacity Full web development Nanodegree program looking at the depth of the syllabus.
Fast forward almost a year, I am already building beautiful web pages, I can design a product and as well able to build what I have designed.
However, this time all my learning’s at Udacity Full Stack web development Nanodegree program has help me to be able to tackle a Product design trainee program Assessment given where I was to design and build a room and roommate application with Html, CSS, and JavaScript. I am so grateful and thankful to Citi and Udacity for making this a reality.
