Empowered to Lead: My Journey as a WWCode Leadership Fellow

When I joined the Women Who Code community as a member almost four years ago, I was searching for a supportive community to practice my Python programming skills. I ended up finding so much more. 

In early 2020, I started volunteering for the WWCode Python technical track community. We were early in the pandemic, and the community offered me a lifeline to an amazingly diverse world. At first, I primarily stayed in the background designing social media graphics for our online events. I developed confidence while organizing two cycles of the Beginner Python Study Group.

Women Who Code leadership fellows lead an amazing global community of volunteers in organizing events and programs for one of our six technical tracks: Blockchain, Cloud, Data Science, Front End, Mobile, and Python. During the summer of 2021, applications for the next cohort of leadership fellows opened, and the current Python leadership fellow Archana Vaidheeswaran encouraged me to apply. Despite feeling nervous, I was excited for the opportunity, so I submitted my application, completed the challenges, and was invited to interview. I was ecstatic to learn I was selected as a leadership fellow for the 2021- 2022 cohort. 

Serving as a leadership fellow was an amazing experience. I had the opportunity to enhance my leadership skills in a safe and supportive environment while empowering, mentoring, and collaborating with a diverse community of volunteers, members, and speakers. As a leadership fellow, I led the Python technical track community of 40+ Leads, Evangelists, and other volunteers. At WWCode, volunteers are the heart of our community, essential to inspiring and shaping our culture. I managed a variety of projects and tasks, including:

• Facilitating a sense of community among thousands of members from diverse backgrounds through community engagement activities and events

• Brainstorming and developing digital events and programs, such as technical series and webinars, community sessions, and interactive coding sessions

• Empowering track volunteers to reach outside their comfort zones, organize innovative events, speak at events and conferences, accept leadership roles, and more

• Empowering speakers to share their technical knowledge and insights with the community

Women Who Code Empowers Fellows – Stephanie Rideout

The fellowship offered several unique opportunities, including speaking at conferences, organizing a technical track summit, and creating a hackathon. I had the amazing opportunity to share a stage lightning talk at one of our virtual conferences – CONNECT Forward 2021: You’re Amazing! Courage to Say ‘Yes’ to More Opportunities. I enjoyed collaborating with leadership fellows Anjali Menon and Zarreen Reza and team members Grecia Castaldi and Mackenzie Bryant to organize the Women Who Code BlockDataPy Summit 2022, which was a collaboration of the Blockchain, Data Science, and Python tracks.

One of the highlights of my fellowship was creating and organizing the Women Who Code Hackathon for Social Good 2022. The hackathon was designed to offer the community an engaging learning experience and empower members to use their technical superpowers to develop projects for social good. Members were challenged to creatively design a technical solution to meet a societal challenge of their choice. For several of our participants, this was their first hackathon experience. I was inspired by teams joining from around the world and working together to fulfill their project mission and solve complex challenges, while also building awesome friendships. 

One of the best perks of serving as a leadership fellow was the opportunity to learn from so many amazing people. I learned a lot from the other leadership fellows in the 2021 cohort – Anjali Menon, Zarreen Reza, Sierra OBryan, Princiya Sequeira, and Jiaqi Liu. Anjali, Zarreen, and I were grouped together, and we met once a week to share insights, support, and encourage each other through challenges we were experiencing. Our manager, Grecia Castaldi was always available to support and guide us on our journey. I received mentorship from the previous cohort of leadership fellows, including Archana Vaidheeswaran, Sapphire Duffy, and Naomi Freeman. As I completed my fellowship, I had the opportunity to mentor the incoming fellows and share some of my experiences along with helpful tips for a successful fellowship.

I’m grateful to Women Who Code for giving me the opportunity of a lifetime. Thank you for supporting me on this amazing journey.

Being a Women Who Code leadership fellow is amazing because you have the opportunity to:

• Empower, mentor, and collaborate with a diverse community of volunteers, members, and speakers

• Enhance your leadership skills in a safe and supportive environment

• Grow and shape the direction of a technical track community

• Speak at CONNECT conferences and raise your professional profile

• Collaborate on exciting, innovative programs, such as code challenges, hackathons, and developer summits

• And so much more!

Are you interested in joining Women Who Code as a leadership fellow? Applications for our 2023-2024 cohort are now open! The deadline to apply is June 15, 2023. Apply now!