One morning I applied for an academy program in Insight Workshop (IW), a Software Company located in Naxal, Kathmandu. The deadline was just the night before. Luckily my application was counted. (Big thanks to my dearest friend Rachana for this). After a rigorous application process I was selected for the program. I also applied for this program from Hawkins Fellowship Program by Code for Nepal. I got selected as a Hawkins fellow from there too. I can’t express in words the feelings that I had that day. I was so excited and nervous about this journey.
On July 20 and 21, fifteen humanitarian tech enthusiasts came to the DataHack 2019 – Map the districts affected by monsoon in Nepal at Outside’s office in Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur. The aim of the DataHack was to map the several districts which have been affected by monsoon rains in Nepal.
I applied for this workshop from both Insight website as well as from Code for Nepal fellowship. It was an amazing feeling to know that I had got selected for both. I thought “WOW! I can do this.” I felt more energetic: all I could feel was positive vibes.
After being selected as one of the Hawkins fellow, I searched for Insight workshop’s further background, course curriculum outline and its location to make sure I am going to the right place. In my view, most of the Nepali students get internship experiences where they just come to complete the syllabus of internship or the internship becomes a phase where students begin to lose their zeal in technology. Often, interns do not learn anything due to lack of guidance. I had a slight skepticism whether the workshop would be as promising as it looked. But when I entered Insight Workshop, it was nothing like what I have encountered in the past. It was fairly disparate from any other technology companies in Nepal. It was an ecstatic moment for me when I could see the academy was professionally equipped, provided with well defined resources and supported by highly experienced mentors.
It has already been a month of joining the program as a Hawkins fellow. In these four weeks, I have learnt a lot about the tasks I should be doing as a software engineer.
Recognizing and thanking Code for Nepal Community members
I joined Code for Nepal this April and my first task was selecting the Hawkins Fellows. There were 24 applicants and out of them eight were called for phone interview. I had to make decisions quickly so we could match the Fellowship timeline for the Insight Workshop training program. I read the stories of the finalists again and again and tried to find a good mix of the fellows according to their diversity and strengths. Within a few days, I communicated with the selected fellows and they responded immediately and have started the fellowship. I sent out rejection letter to the rest of the candidates who I had interviewed. To be honest all the candidates’ stories were exceptional. A few did not meet the education or programming language requirement. I encourage all of those who applied but did not hear from us or did not get selected to continue your hard work and to continue taking advantage of such opportunities. It is great to see that you have already taken the steps towards closing the gender gap in technology by choosing to work in this field and already are role models to many.