Esmeralda is 17 years old and lives in Tancacha, Córdoba. In 2018 and 2019 she participated in our CET Clubs program at her school and, since that moment, she continues with her training to walk her own path in technology. During 2020, as a graduate and member of the #ComunidadCET, she accessed a scholarship to learn web development and is currently using her knowledge to create a informative site on the COVID-19 vaccination process.
How did you come to Chicas en Tecnología?
I met Chicas en Tecnología thanks to my local municipality. They came to my school talking about a program called CET Clubs where I could learn how to develop cell phone applications in order to provide a solution to a social problem.
How was that first experience in which you developed a technological solution to generate social impact?
During the program I developed an application that showed the puppies that were for adoption in a dog home in my town. I identified the problem, which was the overpopulation of animals in the home, I thought of a solution, which was to present these animals to society in order to encourage them to adopt, and then I developed it through an application. This experience motivated me to look around me in search of possible problems and solutions. I realized that thanks to technology we can do great things with a lot of reach. and we have to make the most of it.
The CET Clubs are implemented through educational institutions or non-formal education spaces, led by their teachers and / or referents who are accompanied by Chicas en Tecnología. In the province of Córdoba, the program was carried out in partnership with the Secretariat of Equity and Employment Promotion under the #TecnoFem initiative.
As a participant of the program, Esmeralda became part of the #ComunidadCET, a space of reference, support, specialization and motivation for all the graduates of our programs where we provide them with opportunities and tools to continue their education. Thanks to the alliance between Mercado Libre and Chicas en Tecnología, 31 girls from the #ComunidadCET from Córdoba, Mendoza and San Luis obtained full scholarships to study Full Stack Web Development at Acámica during 2020. Esmeralda was one of them.
What motivated you to apply for the Full Stack Web Development Scholarship?
Thanks to my participation in Clubs, I received an email from CET telling me about the possibility of applying for a scholarship in web development. At that time I didn't know anything about it and I applied anyway, without thinking twice. At first I had doubts because I thought it was going to be a heavy workload, but now I look back and I'm really glad I took the opportunity.
How was the learning process during the classes?
The classes were twice a week, lasting 2.5 hours, where I met by Zoom with my mentor and my classmates. We did a lot of integrative projects and workshops. Some were smaller, like online store interfaces, games or news pages, but the ones I really loved were the final projects of each stage. There we really showed what we were capable of. In my case I had a thousand and one doubts that I didn't know I had before, I felt it was a great challenge. I had to fend for myself to find the solution to what I wanted to accomplish.
At first I thought it was something simpler, that you just had to choose what you wanted on your site and put it on the screen. But From the first class I realized that it went beyond, that there was a whole world behind each site and that although it was something complex, it is also a lot of fun if you are passionate about technology. There is also a large community that shares this sentiment and is always willing to give you a hand if you need help with your code.
What did you like most about the experience and everything you learned?
For me, getting started in programming through web development was the best thing I could have done, since designing a site on your own motivates you a lot to want to keep learning more and more complex things. I loved the fact that I knew that I could do much more on my own than I had imagined at only 17 years of age., and that I can use this knowledge for a purpose with social impact.
After finishing the Web Development course at Acámica, Esmeralda continued to deepen her interests and embarked on another project: the development of an informative website about vaccination in her province, called “Vaccinate Cordoba”.”.
How did the idea for this project come about?
Together with a colleague we realized that there was a lot of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccination. In response to this, we decided to create an informative website, providing clear and objective information on the different vaccines., We have also provided information on how to sign up to receive it, its effectiveness, safety and many other questions that may arise for members of our community.
Our goal was to spread the word about the site as soon as possible so that the people in my village would sign up as soon as possible to receive the vaccine. At the beginning we took care of gathering all the information from reliable sites. Then, I used my knowledge to develop the site and display this information there. Within a week, we had the project finished and in diffusion.
Of all that you learned from these experiences, what is most important for your future?
With these experiences I learned many things: to program websites using many technologies, to design friendly interfaces and basic concepts of programming and how a computer works. But beyond that I also learned to work as a team, to listen to my colleagues and together develop a program to solve any problem. I learned to be more empathetic, patient, organized, decisive, efficient and a leader.
As a technology developer, it is important to know that all the way you went through learning or studying has a real purpose and an objective.The experience of the project: solving a social problem using the tools that are present in our daily lives. Thanks to these experiences I was able to notice a before and after in my life, they introduced me to a world that I am more passionate about every day.
You can visit Esmeralda's website by going to https://vacunatecba.000webhostapp.com/
