Mentor Quentin (left) with Trainee Bresy (right)

Bresy joined the program after completing her freshman year at Eastside College Prep, and entered the program in the Software Engineering Apps track. She was paired with Quentin DCosta, a software engineer on our Careers team, as her mentor and instructor. Noticing that his mentee seemed more interested in the backend, and already knew some Python, Quentin shifted gears to cater more to Bresy’s interests in datastores and business logic.

Quentin helped keep Bresy engaged and saw a positive change in her perspective as the weeks went by, and ultimately expedited her through the technical curriculum. Quentin told us: “Bresy was very keen on problem solving and was quick to understand it as a big part of computer science. What impressed me was how Bresy was able to come up with an algorithm to merge different calendar meetings. These are questions normally asked in interviews for [full-time software engineers], and I have seen people struggle in solving them.” As Bresy put it, “My mentor said we didn’t have to follow the curriculum [exactly]. He gave me problem-solving exercises. I would figure them out, we’d talk about them, then talk about the code. I loved the problem solving and puzzle aspect.”

When asked about her experience in the program, Bresy said, “I was looking for a cool experience to see the inside of the business and career, but it’s different now that we have experienced it. I see how much I’ve grown, with the experience and the community. It taught me a lot as a student and a person. It was pretty difficult. Every day was learning something completely new. In future weeks, you see why you learned something a few weeks back, and how everything builds on each other. It built my confidence when hearing about code and software because I now know what people are talking about.”

A final thought from Quentin looking back at the overall program: “They were so confident and wanted to do big things. They never let the fact that they are so young and less technically sound come in the way of the ideas and ambitions.”

Natasha and Jieqing