Life of a Teen Builder

[jensine-r]

So much has happened since the last time I posted. chromART final finalized our name and logo. I started working on the wire frames with the help of one of the mentors, I am really liking how they are coming out. I only have a few wireframes including the startup page, login page, sign up pages, and home screen.  I realized I never have explained to y'all what exactly chromART does and who it is for, so here's a brief description: chromART strives to provide artists who cannot afford the expensive venue price to showcase their work and provide a platform where artists can interact with each other and their fans by either contacting them personally or liking and dislike their art. The best part of chromART (I would argue) is how it showcases the art. It is showcased in such a way it that it actually gives the venue or gallery look.  Anyways, so we've finalized the logo, name, and mission statement. I am currently working on the wireframes. But we would not be as far as we are now if it wasn't for the mentors we have been provided with. They have been an immense help in envisioning and creating our app, so my gratitude is always to them.  In addition, for the past two weeks we've visited Deloitte and LivePerson. Both spaces were incredible and the food was great, so thank you. 

[jensine-r]

I have many things I want to cover in this post but let me start off by explaining what the heck the picture is. So Generation Tech has been extremely generous endlessly and infinitely and in addition to all that they have done for us they also decided to let us make a 3D version of us online using mug shot pictures and sending them to shapeways where they 3D print out the models and shit it to you. This is how it came out. It somewhat looks like me, but I've been getting more people saying that it looks like a guy than not. Regardless, this is the cutest thing ever, it is the size of my thumb and would like to share this picture with you an would like to thank GenTech for being so kind.

So today was the last day of the two week bootcamp and I have no words. It certainly exceeded my expectations. I did not expect to love the environment and people so much. I have not been too social, but despite my lack of interactions with the other folks at GenTech I have this knowledge that I just know that every single person in the program has a very ambitious drive and dedication to being successful and being able to code, and it's beautiful that all of these people with such ambitious are in the same room and working with each other. I do not think there is such a space like GenTech, of if there are, there are very few. Too few. And it should not be that way. I will elaborate on that more later but first I wanted to mention the two people who are now my role models. I'll have you know, I have few role models but these people are incredible and I have such a deep respect for them.

Jordan and Ron, the program directors aka "teachers" are wonderful people. They truly bring the life into the room, and always greets every one of us with such a positive attitude. I can't express enough gratitude, they truly believe in us, and one doesn't see such belief in a group of working class students of color as they have shown us.

The true vitality of the work that Jordan and Ron are doing for working class students of color in GenTech cannot be adequately expressed. They arm us with skills and knowledge, not only of coding, but truly the 101's of life including the skills one needs to be seen as "professional" and to be a successful entrepreneur. These are skills that are almost never provided in schools, much less schools that the majority of the students in GenTech goes to.

America likes to boast about how anyone can achieve the "American Dream" but more than 90% of people who are born into the working class, stay in working class. The social mobility, or should I say, lack of social mobility is so rigid. It should be of no surprise since there has always been an immense income gap between high income folks and low income folks. But it is programs like these, programs that are usually only accessible to privileged people and knowledge that is essential for starting a successful business that makes social mobility more of a possibility. 

As the program went on, the second week of guest speakers had two women of color who I was more than pleased to meet. It was very empowering to see people who look liked me to be doing something that not a lot of people i know are doing, especially women of color. It made my dream more of a reality and I cannot thank GenTech enough for that.

Despite the lack of sleep on top of the lack of food I am getting the past few weeks, I cannot be more happy to be part of GenTech. It is truly a family, I did not believe that at first, but it really is and I am so immensely thankful to be a part of it.

[jensine-r]

*Thought the image was cool to be view, have seen it before some time in the program*

It has been 5 straight and continuous days of GenTech 9am-5pm and it has been exhausting. Throughout the week I have gotten home late at night and would have to stay up even later to finish up the homework that was assigned for the day. Nevertheless, I genuinely have enjoyed the entire experience. 

I especially liked hearing the guest speakers talk throughout the week. There were multiple entrepreneurs of color that were talking and I really enjoyed hearing how they started and how they became successful. Unfortunately, I did not have the privilege to hear a female entrepreneur of color yet, but nevertheless, yesterday Jessica Brondo was the first female entrepreneur we had the honor of listening to. She is currently the founder and CEO of Admittedly which is a college help website and program for high school students who aim to receive a higher education in a college institution. Hopefully, I remember to use it this year and next year when I start applying to colleges.

Some of my other favorite speakers I had the privilege to hear were Jean Luc, founder and CEO of The Living Lab For Digital Health and Gil Addo, founder and CEO of RubiconMD. They were both speakers of color which definitely encouraged me personally, but their presentations also sparked my interest because for a good chunk of my life and even now, I continuously consider going into the health sector as a doctor for a career. What I especially liked about Luc and Addo was that they combined their passion for human health and coding and made an entrepreneurial business out of that. I want to use the knowledge I receive from GenTech for the public good and I am leaning towards coding for either social activism or public health.

Both the book The Lean Startup and the video that we actually watched promoted using computer programming as a means of social change. I want to figure out some way to do that; to use computer programming to somehow help the world through a social issue.

There are two apps I am currently aware of that promote social change and social awareness. The "Stop and Frisk" app by NYCLU allows users to video record an interaction between the police and someone on the street and the best part of the app is that if it is shaken (like in the instance that the cop wants to take away your phone) the video instantly uploads to the NYCLU page for all to see. Apparently, there was an occasion when some police officers got a hold of someone's phone and the phone had the "Stop and Frisk" app and to make fun of it they were saying all of these horrible things about people and the best part was that they shook it and it instantly uploaded to the NYCLU page for every one to see.

Another app is an app that sends users 'texts" on the latest drone strike including information on the location and how many civilians killed. Apparently Apple did not want to put the app in the Apple App Store but the creator did a whole campaign shaming Apple for their uncooperative behavior and so then Apple finally allowed the app in the App Store.

Both ideas are really cool and are convenient and strategically address the issue the app is about. I have to figure out how to do something similar but in addition allow the users to have a virtual experience using the app. 

We broke into teams on Friday and as of Friday have had an app idea that is subject to change.

I want to talk about the experience forming teams. It was a very painful and agonizing process. In the program we were assigned to come up with an app idea and then during the duration of forming teams, most of the people had to leave their idea to find a common ground to form a team and work on an idea together. Finding those people was also difficult. We are going to be stuck with our teammates for the rest of the summer so it is important that we can work together. Nevertheless, despite the agony the process was completed and now I have my team and the app idea that I will later talk about.

[jensine-r]

This is apparently the first blog post on Life of a Teen Builder. Let me introduce myself, I am Jensine and am a beginner coder. I know basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and Java Script but I look forward to learning more through the Generation Tech program I am enrolled in this summer.

Today, Monday July 7 was the first day of the NYC Generation Tech boot camp. It was a very enriching day. 

We learned a lot about entrepreneurship and exactly what it is and how to start your own business. I remember starting a business with my sister a few years ago. It wasn't successful, but maybe that's because we did not know how to get started. It was a jewelry business. What my sister and I did was buy beads and other materials from Michael's (which now that I think about it, it wasn't the most wise idea since Michael's overprices everything) and we would DIY our own jewelry and sell it. We had a customer, but she wasn't really a customer since she was my mom's friend, so she kind of had to buy our jewelry. Anyways, that was my first "business". 

Today, we learned the strategies of succeeding in an entrepreneurship. My favorite part of the day was the guest speaker. He was the CEO and founder of his own app that he created with his team. I thought it was so cool. However, I hope to see more diverse speakers including women but most especially people of color. Being a woman of color from a low income family, it is hard to imagine that, I, can actually start my own business. I feel like it is easier for more privileged people to do that kind of thing.

However, I appreciated the diversity in the power points that were shown today. Usually, when people put pictures on their power points especially when it has to do with a conversation about professionalism, it is usually of a white man or woman. However, when we were taught our lesson on professionalism (which was kind of a repeat from the training workshop I attended last Wednesday with Ladders for Leaders) the power point had a realistic representation and I was satisfied with the amount of people of color that were represented. I realize it may seem like a small and petty thing to talk and think about, but I truly think that representation, even with something as subtle and insignificant as a power point, still really matters because it plays and impacts our subconsciousness which takes in all of these information.

Besides learning about entrepreneurship and professionalism, we also learned about networking. I think I had my fair share of networking since I have had the privilege of having access to many events where networking was both a useful and expected tool, so I feel like I am quite proficient. Not to blow my own horn or anything. To practice our networking skills, we had a time allotted to actually converse with our peers in a room in addition to another group of people who were part of another summer program that had to do with business entrepreneurship instead of just tech entrepreneurship. It was a cool experience, but I think it was especially easy since we were all around the same age and had the easy way out, in that we were able to talk about high school. Whereas, if you were networking with adults, you would not have that opportunity to talk about each other's schools. Nevertheless, it was a necessary and valuable experience. The people were very friendly and open which I liked.

As part of the networking experience, we have to go to two events in the next two weeks to see what it is like to actually get a good idea of the field and interact with other people.

I decided and am aiming to go to NYC BigApps Block Party Saturday July 19 at 12pm, there is supposed to be a showcasing of many many apps for a competition. Hopefully this will give me an idea of how apps should actually look like, feel like, and be like. I am especially excited about the other event I am planning on going to which is Be Social Change Class: Essential Foundation Startup which is supposed to be a class for nonprofit. Nonprofit is in fact a field I am looking into. 

I really want to combine my passion for social justice with coding somehow. I do not know how, but I want to combine two of my passions into one and create an app. Hopefully I have luck on my side.

And finally, we also talked about how especially easy entrepreneurship is in the tech industry, particularly in New York City. This is because it is quite cheap to start coding and Mayor Bloomberg apparently did one thing right in that he made it really easy for entrepreneurs in the tech sector to get started.

Despite all of this encouragement and preparedness I still have my doubts on whether I can actually create a successful app that would be part of my entrepreneurship. I really want to create my own app and have a whole business with it, but it seems like such an advanced thing to do.

As part of the program we were assigned to write a blog post on Tumblr which is why I am here, typing this even though it is past 1 o'clock after midnight. We were also assigned to read the book that you can see the image of, The Lean Startup. Hopefully it is as good as it sounds, I will get started on the book as soon as I finish this blog post.