The Winter Batch 210 started on January 7 and finishes on March 8, which also happens to be International Women’s Day. This class has six female students from very diverse backgrounds, who all share a curiosity about the tech world and a common desire to quickly acquire new technical skills.
Six women among 17 students is not quite parity, but the fact is that batch after batch, the proportion of women increases - whether in the batch itself or within Le Wagon team! While female role models in the tech world still remain somewhat scarce, we are very proud to be a part of this journey towards equity.
From business to coding
“In my family, all my uncles are computer scientists, so I wanted to study computer science too ; being a woman has never been a barrier for me.”
Grace graduated with a degree in Commerce and Sales, and a year later started studying computer science. After an internship at CollabMachine where she heard about Le Wagon, she attended one of our Demo Days. She was interested in learning Ruby on Rails and was excited about Le Wagon’s work atmosphere and environment, so she registered for the winter batch.
A family tradition
Daniella, a graphic designer by trade, grew up in a family of engineers and developers. It is not without some pride that she explained that her mother was a programmer near the beginning of the 1980s. Daniella felt that competition was high in the field of graphic design and was looking for a new intellectual challenge when she heard about Le Wagon from her sister.
The short course was far more attractive to her than returning to school, so she decided to register, wondering if "it was too good to be true".
Tech’s impact on social problems
"Since beginning with Le Wagon, I have a growing appreciation for how tech can have a meaningful impact on social issues."
Before coming to Le Wagon, Caitie wanted to work in immigration. After experiencing some disillusionment in this field, she decided to abandon this idea and joined a startup incubator project team. The project did not succeed, but it gave her professional career new impetus and encouraged her to join Le Wagon.
...and on the local economy
Emilie spent 5 years with a microfinance institution in Madagascar, as the Digital Financial Product Manager. There she launched, among other things, a nano credit and savings service project to help people escape from poverty. She was involved in the bank’s digital transformation, where she learned the importance of being responsive as a company, and this lead her to take an interest in the agile method (iterative and adaptive development cycle). In addition, she was in daily contact with IT teams, which piqued her interest in the tech world.
She felt her technical skills were somewhat limited, so she joined Le Wagon to be able to combine technical knowledge with her entrepreneurial skills in order to build her startup in Madagascar.
From photography to coding
"I wanted to try something new and take on a new challenge, especially at the creative level. As I had always been curious about UX UI design, I thought that Le Wagon would be the best way for me to learn more about this discipline."
After studying history - and a few trips around the world that introduced her to photography - Daniela began offering photo workshops to adventure and outdoor enthusiasts.
She was still interested in the web and was curious to understand how websites worked behind the scenes, and when she developed a website for her workshops, she became more interested in coding and the more creative aspects of technology.
From philosophy to coding
Rachelle, meanwhile, discovered the world of coding when her philosophy instructor one day decided not to give them the scheduled coursework, but showed them instead how to code basic HTML.
"He showed us how to make text appear over a photo when we hovered over it with the mouse. It's very easy to do...but it left an impact on me."
After studying multimedia design and development in Toronto, she decided to leave the field and return to Quebec, and then began working in the restaurant industry. Two years later, she felt the urge to dive back into learning to code a little more in-depth, without going back for long periods of study. A little research and comparison later, she enrolled in Le Wagon, with her desired outcome being to join an agency so she can continue developing her front-end skills.
Come on March 8th to meet them
Daniela, Caitie, Emilie, Grace, Daniella and Rachelle will present, along with the 11 other Batch 210 students, their team projects that they are developing during the last two weeks of the bootcamp.
Come meet them on Friday, March 8th!
