Week 1

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Initial Thoughts on <Coding></Coding>

Initially, the thought of coding slightly worried me as I had a very boring experience my freshman year of high school. Once I found out that we would be working on web design, I felt more confident and willing to put myself out there in the “world of coding”. One of the things I’ve been interested in for a while is graphic/web design as a career, especially when it comes to creating advertisements or customizing a website. Learning to code again, through html and css, has completely changed my perspective on computer science in general. I’m in a state of confusion at the moment because I thought I hated coding, but now, I’m willing to learn how to develop a website. I like the idea of creating something from scratch and, with programming, seeing my hard work literally come to life. I think coding is a great asset to becoming a graphic designer or whatever career I want because of the growing demands of people companies need from computer science or STEM (that’s where the money is). I look forward to completing the web design program on Team Treehouse, and possibly exploring other programs in the future.

Week 2

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What I love about Treehouse is that I get to have someone teach me how to program instead of having no interaction whatsoever and just reading text all day. Nick, at first, was very informative and helpful; I enjoyed all the shortcuts and tips he gave when I started out with html and css. However, Nick just kept rushing the lessons and I just felt hurt that he wasn’t taking his time with our relationship (sigh). Once I got done with the website lesson, I was ready to let Nick go and fall into the arms of another instructor. Before I started with Guil, I was so excited to leave Nick and be with someone who isn’t as fast-paced and uncaring, but Guil wasn’t any better either. Guil, oh Guil. Maybe it’s because I was so used to living in the fast lane with Nick, but man, Guil is so slow. I don’t mind learning (reviewing) basic steps to visually customize my website, but Guil takes the longest route to teach a simple concept, I’m already five steps ahead of him. Guil is very chill and relaxed, so that’s probably why he is so obsessed over this Lake Tahoe/California website. Even though my online mentors aren’t the best speakers or use the best methods, I still look forward to learning new techniques to making my website “aesthetically pleasing”.

Week 3

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This week, I got to learn how to create a 3D model of my logo for my business, Square Spark, on Sketch Up. I really enjoyed how I got to manipulate the shapes and create something abstract. Mr. McClain was very helpful in showing us how to use Sketch Up and how 3D design is implemented in various parts of our lives, whether its creating/designing a house, furniture, a new building, or just a simple device. With Sketch Up, you can design various 3D models, but you have to be mindful about the measurements (angles, shapes, etc.) so that the product is functional. I’m glad I got to learn another aspect of design (industrial) besides digital and print design.

Week 4

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My obstacles for the week is keeping myself on task with all of the various projects. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed with the blog posts, Future Up website, my personal site, and my business site because I wanted to add so much detail and “go all out” on everything. But I realized that I had to take my time and work things out piece by piece. I decided to organize myself with a list, this meant that I listed all the projects, and within each project, I wrote out very specific tasks I wanted to work on. Eventually, I got everything together and felt more organized after planning out everything I wanted.

Week 5

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So this week was very eventful, I got to hear our lieutenant governor, Jenean Hampton, speak to us about her experiences and how she became who she is today. What amazed me was how she refused to let the obstacles in her life deter her from achieving her dreams. This woman is educated and has worked through many careers, that’s very admirable. One of the things that stuck with me is how she valued education. Hampton said that she always wanted to continue her education after learning about her ancestors and how slaves were prevented from having an education; Hampton wanted better for herself despite living in a poor community. This is so important because we don’t think about how education, in a way, is self-empowerment. Lieutenant Governor Jenean Hampton has shown that you can empower yourself, not only through formal education, but through experiences whether it’s switching multiple careers or living within new cultures.

Week 6

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Working on the Future Up website has been slightly stressful (that’s an understatement), mostly because of the lack of content needed to create an outline of the website. Luckily, Sam pulled through and sent some info about the website along with getting admin access (thanks to Sasanjali) to our word press themes for the site. Within the first hour of having admin access, I was stressed out and angry at the fact that I didn’t know where to go to add the features I wanted on the website. Benevolent Pro is going to catch all the shade from me because they advertised, in their demo, a banner slideshow and IT WASN’T THERE. What complicated things more was that I went out of town for the whole week, so my partner had to figure out most of the things. Then, something technical happened where everyone had to get removed from admin access, and design the site as a user. My partner made some progress but it was a very difficult week for her. I’m not a big fan of wordpress or Benevolent Pro for obvious reasons but designing the Future Up website was a great learning experience for me.

Week 7

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Looking back on what I’ve learned at Empowered, I am so glad that I went through some of the struggles (html, css, wordpress,etc.). This made me realize how little I know about things when it comes to what I do or don’t like. I never saw myself liking css to the point of considering web development as a career. I’m so glad that this program is in a “real” job setting because I have the best access to mentors. Within the last few weeks I’ve had the privilege to get first-hand advice from people who work in web design/development. On top of that, I decided to branch out (thanks to Alisia) and ask if I could possibly shadow at Doe Anderson, one of the best advertising agencies in Kentucky. Besides mentorship, I look forward to learning more about web development and design on Team Treehouse, I’m trying to learn as much as I can and see where I fit in (also, I want to feel empowered and know what I’m doing).