Your Django Story: Meet Michela Dai Zovi

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here. 

Michela used to be a wildrness guide and social worker, but now she’s a full-time digital nomad with her travel-blogging Liebensabschnittspartner. She learned Python this year from Coursera’s Programming for Everybody and Codecademy, and then moved on to learning from YouTube tutorials to produce her first Django project: http://www.smartderby.net/. Michela does all kinds of other things, including but not limited to writing about contraceptives, selling roller skates, and teaching. She thinks Django is really fun and can’t wait to add more features to her project.

How did your story with code start?

I starting learning Python just over a year ago, primarily from Coursera’s Programming for Everybody, and then Codecademy, various other MOOCS, books, YouTube tutorials, etc.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

Jack of all trades, master of none– I used to be a wilderness guide, then I was in social work, then I taught English abroad, and I frequently spend my summers working at a roller derby skate shop. I also wrote a book about how mad I am that copper IUDs cost $900 in the US and $20 elsewhere. Now I just finished my first Django site.

What do you love the most about coding?

The 2 things that I love most are the low barrier to entry– anyone with time, a computer, and internet access can learn how to code if they’re willing to focus on it. Also, I love that there is always something to learn. Usually the minute I start to feel good at something I begin to hate it. There’s so much to know that I don’t think I’ll ever actually feel like I’m good at programming, which means I might actually manage to enjoy it for quite some time.

Why Django?

First I chose Python because it was highly recommended as the first programming language to learn. Then I chose Django for my specific project because it has a large, vibrant, community, and I was confident that it would be easy to find any answers that I needed from the large pool of people who have already struggled with and solved the same problems that I would have. The impression I got from what people said when comparing frameworks was that Django was a big time investment that would pay off if you were willing to learn it, which made it sound like the winner, in my eyes.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Just yesterday I deployed my first big project, which is a roller derby stats and gear site http://www.smartderby.net/

I wrote an algorithm to rank individual players, which is something that I’m not aware of anyone else in the sport having done yet, and I hope to develop that into fantasy roller derby.

It’s far from finished, more at the minimum viable product stage. There’s still a lot to improve, but I’m happy to have gotten it to the point where I can deploy and see if anyone but me thinks that I’m onto something.

What are you the most proud of?

I was really hoping to deploy my site less than a year after typing “Hello World” for the first time, but unfortunately that deadline came and went. But I still managed to get it up less than a year after finishing my first programming MOOC. I don’t know if that’s a good timeline or a bad one, but for me, going from not even knowing where to start on a completely novel skill set, to accomplishing my goal within a year, made me happy. Also, I’m old. I know the stereotype is that you learn to program as a 10 year old whiz kid and if you didn’t do it then, you don’t have it in you, but I’m 32, just now learning, and probably wouldn’t have had the attention span for it prior to now.

What are you curious about?

I think making a game with Unity would be really fun. Maybe I could use the player stats to make a game based on real athletes. That’s probably not legal without their permission though. Also, 3Dprinting.

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I haven’t actually managed to get paid for coding yet, so I guess that’s my hobby. I travel a lot– my partner writes a travel blog and we’re full time digital nomads. For example, my derby site was built from Germany, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, and the Philippines, and the United States.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Advice 1:

When you’re learning something new, seek out several sources, so that you’ll learn which parts of it are essential (what does everyone do the same way) and what is subjective (what does each person do differently).

Advice 2 (This one is the most important):

Don’t pigeonhole yourself. Certainly different people have different aptitudes, but most people can be taught to do most things, so the worst thing you can do is limit yourself by deciding you’re not “the type of person that…” My brother has been into CS since he was prepubescent, and my partner has his MA in programming, so I’ve always been around computer dudes but I never considered it for myself. I had pigeonholed myself as a Walden Pond “type of person that” would never be interested in coding until I got the idea for my derby site.

That was stupid. The first thing I think of when I wake up in the morning is the last thing I did to my project the previous night, and what I need to do today. Whether or not I like to code has nothing to do with stupid stereotypes about “the type of person that” does or does not share unrelated common interests with me. People are more complex than they give themselves credit for.

Thanks Michela! :)

Anna Ossowski

@OssAnna16

Your Django Story: Meet Michela Ledwidge

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here. 

Michela Ledwidge is an artist and director redefining the space between cinema and games. In 2004 she won a NESTA Invention award for ‘remixable film’, which outlines her vision for playful storytelling and digital culture and continues to underpin her artistic practice. She is co-founder of studio Mod and has been both the creative and technical lead on numerous productions.

How did your story with code start?

My dad bought a Commodore 64 and some copies of Compute’s Gazette magazine home in the mid-80s that I was expressly forbidden to use without permission. Mucking around with computers was elevated to a more attractive illicit activity than it would otherwise have been. This was back in the day when full source code could be printed in magazines. My first “coding” was covert typing in of pages and pages of BASIC to get a new game. At primary school we did some LOGO (Turtle Graphics on the Apple IIe) but once puberty kicked in I abandoned coding. It wasn’t until university that I got back into coding. I ended up majoring in Computer Science and French as part of an Arts Degree. This was 1993 and my honours thesis “Cruising and Creating with WHype” involved writing a (very rudimentary) web browser/editor and publishing the first website in NSW.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

As a ten-year old? Not that much.

What do you love the most about coding?

I subscribe to hypertext pioneer Ted Nelson’s school of thought, that software is a branch of film-making. As a director, my process involves writing words, music and code. I love the creative process of turning ideas into art and functionality. Being able to develop your own ideas can be very empowering. I’m a lifelong student of digital culture. It’s a fascinating story.

Why Django?

I’ve been using Django since 2009 after switching from Turbogears. What attracted me was the larger user base and “batteries included” functionality like the admin interface. I’m not a full-time developer so I place great value on stable frameworks that support quick and dirty prototyping.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

My day job is creative and technical director at studio Mod. We create interactive entertainment that sits between cinema and video games and often incorporate live experience. Django is a core component of our production management product Rack&Pin which powers all our shows. Our immersive interactive video show ACO Virtual lets the audience remix the Australian Chamber Orchestra and set a new benchmark for high performance video off a single PC. The show is 2 years into a 4 year tour - currently showing at Gataker’s Artspace and Gladstone Art Gallery. We’re in production on a new show - an immersive “on board” experience for the Australian National Maritime Museum’s destroyer-class warship and submarine. I’m using Django to direct an experience across 30+ hidden computers in a process I’m calling augmented set design.

What are you the most proud of?

I’m most proud of our little studio Mod which is now five years old. It’s a very tough business environment to operate in but we’ve done some exciting work with media and technology. I find it very satisfying and a privilege to lead fabulous multi-disciplinary teams.

What are you curious about?

I’m curious about how the traditional screen industry and interactive entertainment will evolve. I’m very curious as to how we can increase digital literacy for women and get more people coding, writing, directing and producing in this space.

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

Watching comedy. Playing games. Bushwalking.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Pick a subject that you’re passionate about and look at how programming can help. There are lots of excellent general purpose tutorials out there (including the djangogirls one!) but nothing is more satisfying that coding something personal that you and your network find beautiful and/or useful.

Thanks Michela! :)

Anna Ossowski

@OssAnna16

Meet our Awesomeness Ambassador: Lucie!

When we announced our plan to hire someone to help us keeping up with all Django Girls things, we didn’t expect how hard and challenging this process will be for us.

We received 67 appliactions from incredibly amazing people and we faced a really tough choice because we would be happy to work with loads of them. We had two rounds of interviewes, we asked hard questions and we were blown away by the level of professionalism and commitment of people we spoke with. We are humbled and grateful that so many wonderful people wanted to work for us.

🎉✨💗 We are thrilled to announce that we found our Awesomness Ambassador: Lucie Daeye! 💗✨🎉

Lucie is involved with Django Girls form the very beginning. From the PhD student of Geography and Korean Studies who attended the first Django Girls workshop a year ago, she became a Django community member, event organizer, coach and activist. In April, she brought up to life Django Girls Paris (see photos from the event here). Then, wanting to provide a safe place for women in IT in Paris, she started Pyladies Paris. And on top of that, in June she took the DjangoCon EU 2015 stage to talk about Django in social sciences.

She checked all the requirements checkboxes for Ambassador position. Her professionalism, huge experience (also an experience dealing with hard and emotionally draining situations), empathy and reliability convinced us that she will be perfect fit for the position.

We can’t wait to start working with her!

🐍🔥💖🍓🍒🌈✨

#DjangoGirls Free Programming Workshop Awesomeness in Seattle

This post originally appeared on Melinda’s blog, and is reproduced here with her permission.

Another Saturday morning with my alarm going off… sigh… and the thought goes across my mind “what did I get myself into?” A couple of weeks ago I submitted my application to take part in a day-long workshop to learn Django. It sounded like fun, it was free, and I tend to ask myself “why not” instead of “why” so I eagerly signed up. And once again I am glad I did.

Woohoo! I coded my first webpage and it was awesome… wait, it IS awesome and it’s right here… okay, sure, it’s not that impressive yet (compare with the image at the end of the page here) but it’s a work in progress! I was one of 30 lucky women out of 70 applicants to take part in the very first Django Girls workshop.

Friday night was the install party and we all toted our variety of laptops to the Jolt Labs space in Pioneer Square to get setup. There was food and drinks provided and a fun, open atmosphere. As we arrived, we checked in, donned the appropriate label with our name and did the junior high dance floor routine of picking a coaching partner. An appropriate level of awkwardness and smiling later, and I scored a great coach, Wendy from PyLadies. After meeting her it only took about two seconds to decide to join the PyLadies Seattle meetup group. (Since then I joined PyLadies and even signed up for my first Hack Night which sounds really cool.)

Installing was straightforward. We went through a tutorial on the Django Girls website and just skipped to all of the parts where we had to install programs and create accounts. At the end of an hour I ended up with Sublime Text 2 code editor, Python 3.4 Bash, Git Hub and Python Anywhere accounts as well as a new reason to brush up on my Windows PowerShell skills.

Saturday we got a cool little cheat sheet and were split up in teams of three people to one coach. We got the friendly and funny coach Luke (yes, there were guys there and we were appreciative of their help). His wife had participated in a similar workshop in Portland last month – and although I never met her, huge thanks to her for encouraging him to give up a Saturday to come help teach us.

The workshop was advertised as beginner level with no experience necessary. I have some experience and was able to complete the entire tutorial an hour before the end of the day but I also worked through most of the lunch because I was enjoying it. It was obvious where my prior experience came in handy, both in practice with the command line and code editor tools as well as overall concepts of what we were doing and why. Prior experience meaning about three years of work experience with systems operations and application administration as well as an AA in Computer Science with exactly one Python programming class in the mix. I do believe, however, that you could truly have no experience and still get a lot out of the class. There were coaches giving great lessons on some of the core concepts to some of the other students and they were doing a great job.

One of my favorite parts… no expectations! Just go through the tutorial as far as you can. Ask questions. Get help when you need it. Literally no pressure to complete anything and that was wonderful. Even at lunchtime when I was curious about how far along I was compared to where people usually were, there wasn’t anything to compare to and that was rather freeing. I have been called “your typical overachiever” in the past although I don’t always agree, I do know that I like to get stuff done and done right.

Sponsors took a few minutes to speak at lunch. The co-founder of Jolt announced they are indeed hiring, which garnered a good response from the crowd. Overall the message was to get out there and become a part of the Seattle tech community… Django Girls, PyLadies, {she’s coding}and that these local organizations are backed by international efforts as well so we are a small part of a very big movement. Lots of local groups here: http://www.meetup.com/ There will be more free workshops coming… tell all your friends!

Throughout the day I enjoyed my comfortable window seat with the wafting sounds and smells of Pioneer Square coming in on the cool breeze. Tourists riding the duck and endless waves of people going to see the Mariners in the afternoon and Taylor Swift that evening passed by enjoying their Saturday unaware of what was happening upstairs in the old brick building as we invested a beautiful afternoon indoors learning to code.

If you’re thinking about going to a Django Girls workshop or similar event, do it. Even if it means getting up early on a Saturday and spending a day downtown. It was worth it and I can’t wait to do it again. In fact, I might even be at the next Django Girls workshop as a coach… so stay tuned. Do you know of a great free or low cost programming workshop in the Seattle area? Reply or leave a comment, let’s share and grow our women in tech community!

Melinda Thrasher

@melindathrasher

Your Django Story: Meet Nicole Harris

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Nicole Harris is both a professional web designer and developer - having originally started out on the design side of things, exposure to Django’s templates eventually led to her learning the rest of the framework, brushing up on her Python and JavaScript skills along the way. Nicole recently moved to the UK after running her own business (Kabu Creative) in Australia for 3 years. Whilst “down under”, she reinitiated and led the Australian chapter of PyLadies (a non-profit group aimed at encouraging more women to get involved with Python) and designed the official website for PyCon Australia 2014 / 2015. You can follow Nicole on twitter @nlhkabu or read her blog at whoisnicoleharris.com.

How did your story with code start?

I studied film and photography at university and wanted to make a portfolio for my animation work. I asked my boyfriend (now husband) to help me; he encouraged me to learn HTML and CSS, and the next thing I knew, I was hooked! From there I became a web designer, during which time I became familiar with, amongst other things, Django templates. Learning to code with Django was a natural next step.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I was a web designer. Ironically, I had very little interest in server-side programming, thinking at the time that it was not interactive and creative enough for me - but once I eventually dipped my toe in the water, I quickly realised just how wrong these assumptions had been! In fact, there is a huge amount of design involved in programming!

What do you love the most about coding?

I love the creativity! I enjoy the process of making something from nothing and solving complex problems with creative thinking.

Why Django?

I can’t really take too much credit for initially choosing Django - my husband was already well-versed in it, and it was his encouragement that pushed me towards this particular framework. However, I certainly did choose to stick around! Perhaps my favourite thing about Django is its incredible community - everyone is really friendly and helpful. Also, the docs are stand-out fantastic.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

I am working on a moderated social network called Connect. It’s an invitation-only space designed to help users connect with each other based on skills, location and experience. My initial motivation was to make it for PyLadies Australia, but I’ve since open-sourced it and am hoping to launch it as a mentorship platform for Django too.

What are you the most proud of?

Constantly challenging myself.

What are you curious about?

Different foods, cultures, ways of thinking. On the coding front, I’m currently interested in architectural questions (how can I better structure my code) and learning some more JS - at the moment this means making a small app with Ember.js.

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I LOVE food, and I really enjoy cooking, especially baking. I’m also a huge fan of curries (I lived in India for six months, where I got to sample quite a few of them)! I am also midway through making a huge multi-coloured quilt, though I’m still waiting for my sewing machine to arrive from Australia, so it could be a little while yet. I am also learning French, which is a pretty big challenge.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Don’t be afraid to ask questions - no question is stupid. Asking questions isn’t just about helping yourself - you’re also teaching the community how they can better help beginners. If you don’t understand, then your teacher/ the community / the docs need some improvement - it is not a reflection of your intelligence or ability to learn. You can do it!

Anna Ossowski

@OssAnna16

Django Girls Winter of Code

It all started with an email from Ola sent on the 11th of December 2014:

“…Django Girls main email account is regularly receiving questions from various companies asking us if we know some Django Girls alumni who might be interested in working for them. On the other hand, we also get questions from our alumni asking us if we know some companies who are looking for junior devs in city X.

[…]

So we’ve decided to build a “jobs” section on our website, where we can post job listings that we endorse and make it easier for employers and Django Girls to find each other!…”

A lot of people replied really enthusiastically about the whole idea and many volunteered to help (17 people in three days ;)). The final team who worked on the Jobs and Meetups section of the website wound up consisting of Marysia Lowas-Rzechonek, Becky Smith, and me, Kasia Siedlarek.

We also received a lot of helpful feedback, content advice and pull requests (thanks to Ania Warzecha, Ola Sitarska, Lacey Williams Henschel!).

The project seemed rather easy at the beginning, but very soon we found a number of problems to solve; some small, some more complicated… We needed to rethink the model schema, decide how to go about the reviewing process, learn about email notifications, learn how to add custom widgets… And so Winter had ended and Spring became Summer. Finally, we decided the time has come.

The outcome is far from perfect, but it works (at least we hope so ;)), so feel free to tell us what should be changed, create an issue or just submit the Pull Request. You can find the code at https://github.com/DjangoGirls/djangogirls in the jobs app.

The new Jobs and Meetups section of the Django Girls website can be found under the Community section (in the footer) - from there you may choose to add a job opportunity, browse through available positions or see if any cool event is coming up in your city. You can also submit a meetup which you are going to attend or organise!

All job opportunities and meetups are reviewed before they are published on Django Girls site (yay!). Anyone wishing to add a job opportunity should remember that we are all about helping beginner programmers gain more knowledge and experience. If you are adding a meetup, workshop or conference, please keep in mind that we require all events on our website to have a published Code of Conduct.

Now from some personal opinions about the whole project:

me (Kasia):

It was great experience to work with Marysia and Becky, since I’ve never really had an opportunity to work on a project with more than one person ;). I feel that I’ve learned a lot and know better what I don’t know. I would surely recommend volunteering for Django Girls, especially for those who went through Django Girls tutorial, are willing to do more and prefer not to work alone ;).

Marysia:

Taking part in the Winter of Code was such a good experience. For me it was a real step forward in thinking like a programmer. When doing just your own projects, you can always change your design, make things easier and stay with things you already know. But working on something together, something you believe in, challenges you to do your best.

With Kasia, we had endless discussions on Slack about various bits of the Community sections, each of us bringing in her own experience and perspective. Sometimes, we spent hours discussing and writing something that we dropped later on. We tried to keep things simple but user-friendly. And Becky was always there, giving us a space to work things out for ourselves but stepping in each time we got stuck or got carried away too much. I would really recommend taking part in such a project to everyone.

Becky:

The Winter of Code has been a fantastic experience for all of us.  Reading through the initial specs, it seemed like a big project for a group of beginner programmers!  As mentor for the group I initially helped with planning and working out what tasks needed to be done and who was best to work on each part.  However, Marysia and Kasia really quickly took ownership of the project and started to drive its progression, and gained confidence in their own coding abilities.  By the last couple of months I really just gave some suggestions in code reviews, and watched it all happen!  I feel privileged to have been involved in the project, and I think it demonstrates that with a willingness to learn, determination and good support from others, amazing things can be achieved!  I hope it will encourage other new developers to take on similar challenges and other organisations to consider offering this sort of opportunity.

Your Django Story: Meet Cynthia Monastirsky

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Cynthia is from Buenos Aires, Argentina. She works as a Python/Django developer. Cynthia is a tech events attendee enthusiast: Django, Python, infrastructure, architecture, devops, frontend… She also participates in several local communities.

How did your story with code start?

It started in 2002, after a big crisis in Argentina. I was in my last high school year, and my mother was jobless. I decided to build her a website, which helped her a lot. That amazed me so much, that even now I still can’t believe how relevant that moment was in my life.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I was studying environmental engineering, but I was feeling that it was not my path. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to become.

What do you love the most about coding?

Once a friend told me that when he watched me programming it looked like if I was playing a game. And let’s face it, who doesn’t love to be able to play every day of their life?

Also, the thrill of finding the solution for something hard, sometimes in unexpected ways, makes my day every time.

Why Django?

A fellow programmer I was working with was always talking about Django with enthusiasm. At that time I was a beginner PHP programmer and didn’t know much about other languages.

He taught me the first steps, and not so long after that I changed my PHP work for a super mega awesome Django job!

Also, here in Argentina we have an amazing Python and Django community, so I made a lot of friends.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

I’m a proud member of our brand new chapter LinuxChix Argentina, where we focus on reducing the gender gap in GNU/Linux in particular and in FOSS in general.

Many members are Python and Django enthusiasts, so we are preparing to participate in events, workshops and meetups to spread the word about its magic!

I’m also helping to organize the Buenos Aires Python Meetup (we just reach 300 members!), where we get together to learn, teach, chat, code and sprint.

What are you the most proud of?

I used to have the feeling I didn’t know enough, that I wasn’t prepared to work. Thankfully, I then became aware of the existence of the impostor syndrome, so I didn’t feel alone anymore.

Today I can say I no longer feel like a newbie or an impostor, but an experienced programmer who has a lot to learn, who can keep evolving and gaining knowledge, and also help others.

What are you curious about?

Where will programming take me next time?

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

Bike riding, bread baking, cuddling with my cat :3.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Persevere, don’t let anyone, especially yourself!, tell you that you can’t, or you are not intelligent enough.

Try to have a study buddy, meet the local or international community, investigate, play with technologies, use social networks to improve your knowledge, break things, read, read, read!

Anna Ossowski

@OssAnna16

Your Django Story: Meet Vivian Guillen

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Vivian is a full stack developer that likes to make things prettier and more functional. She’s also a bitcoin geek and a Startup Weekend Education Organizer. When she’s not writing code she’s organizing meetings for the Pyladies Santo Domingo Chapter.

How did your story with code start?

I have always loved working with computers, I had my first PC at 12 and a year later was already changing the operating system and customizing game emulators to work how I wanted.

A couple of years later I finally got an internet connection and instantly fell in love with the web.

I remember I started freelancing at 16 installing and tweaking Wordpress sites because I wanted to buy myself a new laptop. Fun times!

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I studied Economics in college and briefly worked as an analist at a local NGO before realizing that coding was what I really wanted to do.

What do you love the most about coding?

To me, coding is like magic. You can make something out of nothing, it’s like a superpower.

Why Django?

Because of the local Python community.

Back when I decided I wanted to work in programming, I attended a meeting of the local Python user group to meet the people of the local developer community and ended up meeting who would be my future cofounder, Leonardo.

Leo introduced me to Django. At that time I have never seen such a complete framework and was delighted at how powerful it was. Furthermore, I found the online community of Django to be very friendly to beginners and the plethora of online tutorials helped me become very comfortable with it.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

I’m currently in the process of starting a new software company called Codetiger.

What are you the most proud of?

My curiosity, I’m always reading new things and meeting new people.

What are you curious about?

Anything related to bitcoin, to me bitcoin is an incredible breakthrough in the finance industry and will continue to evolve and be an important part of the financial ecosystem of the 21st century.

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

My main hobby is reading fantasy novels and playing videogames. I also spend my free time organizing Pyladies Santo Domingo.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Never try learning many new things at once. Start slow and have clear goals about what you want to achieve by coding. And if you can, try to find a mentor, someone with experience that can help you avoid making the same mistakes over and over again and help you learn faster and better.

Anna Ossowski

@OssAnna16

Yay! Lacey Williams Henschel is joining the Django Girls Support Team ✨

Drumrolls everyone! 

It is an amazing honour to announce the newest addition to the Django Girls Support Team: Lacey Williams Henschel! 

We met Lacey half a year ago, when she joined Django Girls by organizing a workshop in Portland. Shortly after we had a chance to actually meet in real life, at PyCon US. She instantly made us fell in love with her radiating energy, positiveness and empathy. 

Lacey works as Senior Software Developer at The University of Texas. She contributes to Django Girls resources and website, organizes two events – in Portland and Austin. Lacey is also involved in organizing DjangoCon US this year. If you want to get to know her better, here is her Django Story.

We couldn’t be happier to have her in a team :) 

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ 

Your Django Story: Meet Lorena Mesa

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here. 

Political analyst turned coder, Lorena Mesa works as a platform software engineer at Sprout Social and is a co-organizer for PyLadies Chicago. Lorena loves to make meaning out of data, asking big questions and using her code to build models to derive that meaning. Part Star Wars fanatic but mostly a Trekkie, Lorena abides by the motto to “live long and prosper”.

How did your story with code start?

I interned with President Obama’s first presidential campaign in the Latino Vote team. Working in the national headquarters (and in the field) I was responsible for managing parts of our voter outreach campaigns. Until then I had never written a line of code before, but with the scale of data we were working with for tracking and running analytics on our campaigns I soon had to pick up some basic SQL which lead to me learning how to do some basic R. I had never seen a political campaign that had such a real impact on the day to day lives of people and I attribute in large part to the coding competency of the staff and interns. After my time on the campaign I continued to learn how to code in grad school, working with GIS and R to finish my master’s thesis.

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

I was a policy analyst before I became a programmer. While I did not “code” in the way that software engineers do, I did work with tools that required me to be competent in things like Math Lab or SQL.

What do you love the most about coding?

Creating tools to empower others to do exciting and new things! It is amazing how you can translate an idea into a functional prototype within a matter of days.

Why Django?

I work professionally with Django but outside of work I found that it is a highly versatile framework, you can use it as a pure API or in small projects like the blog you create in Django Girls. Not only that but the people who use Django are very interesting themselves - Django is not only a web framework but a tool that people who solve problems use.

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Planning a Python Open Source workshop with Write/Speak/Code. Ideally we will hack on some of the issues for Django!

What are you the most proud of?

I’m really excited that I didn’t stop learning once I knew what “coding” was or once I got my first job as a software engineer. Learning is a lifelong thing, if you don’t love what you do then there may be a problem. Luckily my love of learning led me to code and code is something that never stops giving.

What are you curious about?

Data Science! I’ve been taking an edX Intro to Machine Learning class and recently gave a talk on a white paper evaluating the efficiency of Naive Bayes. My background in policy had me working with data so I would love to return in some regard to that.

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I’ve completed the Chicago Marathon eight times now so I can safely say running, particularly distance running, is a hobby of mine. I’ll be taking it to a new level this year by participating in Napa Valley’s Ragnar race - an overnight relay race with lots of hills and excitement :D.

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

Stop obsessing over “is this right”, reading endless blogs and books is going to keep you from writing code. While you should definitely read technical publications you should immediately put that to work on a pet project. For example - do you like to write? Make a blog! Curious about how to develop a game? Make one! Health fanatic? Make an calorie counter website that uses Google Maps API to route “which route can I burn the most calories on”. There are many ways to start and if you aren’t sure, attend a MeetUp, find an online user group – ASK QUESTIONS and find a mentor!

Thanks Lorena! :)

Anna Ossowski

@OssAnna16