Last week, the girls were on their own and they did really well!
I sent one email to them with all that they’ve got to do this week and then stood by the sidelines, watching them help each, figure it out and get it done.
When we decided that this is how this week would be, our hypothesis was that:
- The girls can and should learn to figure it out.
- They will all help each other.
- We need only manage their energy and ensure they keep working towards the goal.
All of the above — true! They could figure it out on their own with super minimum resources. They helped each other as well.
I made myself available in our group everyday from 7–8 PM to help answer their queries but honestly, they did not need it. We had one open house that went really well! It really helped in resetting expectations and reassuring them that this activity is about you learning to do a project on your own and getting it’s first version out in a week (A lot of them were pressured thinking we would evaluate the quality of their bot.)
Anyway, most of them did manage to publish their chat bot. All awaiting review and all super excited 😀
Let’s look at their TWTWs and jot down some observations!
Observations/Realisations/Learning
- Induction program for first year students seems to be super important. This is so that the girls can make best use of their 4 years of college.
- Keep encouraging people. Goes a long way (Ref. Farha is a top writer in medium now :))
- Detailed broken down mails help. I thought that email I sent was way too long. But looks like it helped.
- Girls looking to record their call and open source it is nice.
- People love creating things.
- Learning must be fun!
- Break your mountain task into small tasks — break it to a dummy’s level. (https://lifehacker.com/5793211/trick-yourself-into-working-by-breaking-down-tasks-to-a-for-dummies-level)
- Bubbles! One good discovery this was.
- Coaches don’t always know best. Have your personal board of mentors/coaches. Don’t rely on a single person’s advice.
- Have a session on toxic mentorship, cycle of abuse, realising abuse, speaking up, must be aware of laws.
- Having a followup activity for girls to continue practicing all that they’ve picked up so far is essential
- Use Youtube to publish videos as against Google Drive. Much better viewing experience and also easy to share and discover.
- #mobility and #access — Have your passport, PAN, BHIM, Bank account, internet all ready.
- Discuss “Everything is Malleable”, Eisenhower matrix
- “I thought it would be too tough, but it wasn’t”.
- Networking/Connect, Resume and LinkedIn Profile
- When planning the next WIT program, we’ve to check for the exam dates if students in advance.
- Discovering the tools seem to have been a key takeaway.
- Stop planning, start doing.
- Creating own bubbles character was a fun task it seems 🙂
- Maintain a good CGPA.
- Work with Professors and gain research experience
- Set your goal. Have a peer group created. Connect with those who have been there and done that. Get it done.
- Find people who believe in you and your work.
- “I’ve always wanted to build a project but I always told myself I lack the necessary skills to do it”
- Be willing and open to trying things.
- I love all our participant-coach pairings! By letting them choose each other, I think we’ve actually done justice. Some of them make such a beautiful pair! Dhanya-Hima, Liyana-Amrita, Mridula-Ayushi among others have shared goals and interests. I love how they are bonding!
- “See yourself visibly improve”
