I attended the first Code Academy demo day back in December and immediately upon walking into the (insanely packed) room, I felt this feeling of community and comfort.
As I watched each student present one by one, I felt the feeling even more. There was something in the air. These students had gathered in Chicago from around the world to learn a programing language together, in person. They came from a variety of background and levels of technical knowledge.
When I attended the second Demo Day, same thing.
After 12 weeks, it was if they'd all known each other a life time. Sure, they were nervous presenting, but you could just FEEL the support from the other students as each one took the microphone.
There are a lot of online resources these days that help people learn and help others teach. But I think there's really something to be said for something like Code Academy and that amazing feeling of community it creates.
I went through Code Academy class one in the Fall of 2011. I was a little unsure how it would turn out but Mike and Neal seemed to have everything under control.
Jeff was an excellent teacher, the class was full of incredibly passionate people and the course work was tough but effective. It's awesome to see how far Code Academy has come. Congrats!
I would recommend this program to anyone interested in working at or starting their own technology company. No more excuses to 'find a technical co-founder' - build the MVP yourself.
Super inspiring. Sounds like every startup founder needs to take a lesson out of the Code Academy founders' playbook. They hustled their butts off and made something great. Congrats.
There are quite a few "learn to write rails" schools out there, but the thing that excites me about Code Academy is that they seem to have an amazing focus on community.
The students, alum, and mentors seem to hang out with one another socially and go out of their way to help each other technically.
Thank you, we love what we do, and we can't wait to keep doing it. And it really is about the community, that's one of the biggest reasons why so many of us are choosing to move to Chicago.
I am in Code Academy Spring 2012 and they do have quite an active community surrounding it. For example there's book clubs, entrpnr classes, learning groups, mentors(though I'm in the third week and have yet to meet mine), hackathons, and many different social nights.
As I watched each student present one by one, I felt the feeling even more. There was something in the air. These students had gathered in Chicago from around the world to learn a programing language together, in person. They came from a variety of background and levels of technical knowledge.
When I attended the second Demo Day, same thing.
After 12 weeks, it was if they'd all known each other a life time. Sure, they were nervous presenting, but you could just FEEL the support from the other students as each one took the microphone.
There are a lot of online resources these days that help people learn and help others teach. But I think there's really something to be said for something like Code Academy and that amazing feeling of community it creates.