What I learned from Adjacent Academies

To say that Adjacent Academies has an unconventional methodology of educating students would be an understatement. Never have I encountered a challenge where I truly felt like I was headed towards failure and there was absolutely nothing I could do. Throughout all my years in school there was always some light at the end of the tunnel where I felt like everything would resolve itself. This experience was very different. Despite all of this, I would definitely repeat the experience as many times as I could. There are so many different things that I could say about this program but I’m going to do my best to give an overall explanation of how I grew and what I learned.

The basic premise of this program (or what I perceived) was that we would learn coding and web development in the time frame of six weeks in San Francisco, California, the technological powerhouse of America, otherwise known as Silicon Valley. This was an opportunity of a lifetime where I would be able to focus solely on coding, develop a problem solver’s mind, and possibly even learn how to make a website. This was all true, but the Adjacent Academies: Summer of Code 2019 went so much further than my expectations. The six weeks would comprise of group projects, survey thousands of pages, creating websites with HTML and CSS, learning JavaScript, experimenting with Node Frameworks, networking, and so much more. The amount of knowledge that I was able to gain in such a short six weeks was something that was unimaginable before I went to San Francisco.

The most essential concept that I learned which would truly impact everything I would do moving forward was: learning how to learn. Though this may seem trivial because it is assumed that “everyone knows how to learn” because it is human nature, knowing HOW to truly learn is completely different from the surface level learning that many settle for. I now know how to the key to educating oneself is to delve into what interests us the most. Though this may not be easy in a conventional education system, this will allow me to expand my knowledge on my own terms. Instead of waiting for the professor to tell me what we are learning next I now know that I am capable of learning so much more than what’s on the syllabus. Exposure was another concept that was emphasized when we were learning how to learn as we were told that the best way to expand our minds is to survey at least 100 pages of a book in a night. Though this may seem a bit ridiculous when you think about it too much it’s only about an hour of your time and it’s not too complicated to do. Understanding that being confused is simply a part of the learning process and embracing the discomfort that one feels when they don’t know something is a crucial part of learning. Once I was able to overcome this mindset of fearing the unknown, I was able to learn much more at a faster rate. These were the 3 key points that were indicative of the “learning how to learn” philosophy.

Now that I know how to learn, I am able to bring this into everything that I do. I feel like I am truly capable of so much more than I thought. The amount of confidence that I have gained from learning this basic concept is incredible. I remember my professor distinctly telling me that his goal was to teach us how to teach ourselves so that we could always be knowledgeable about anything we wanted. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that I would be able to make and present 6 different fully fledged projects that I completed in less than 24 hours, have informational interviews with professionals at Facebook, network with people at huge companies like Amazon and Handshake, and live in San Francisco, all in six weeks. This was all possible because my professor believed in me and told me that one day I wouldn’t need another person’s validation to feel accomplished. Without the help of these amazing people I wouldn’t have been able to This program did an amazing job at focusing on both hard and soft skills which was extremely important because I feel like I am prepared for the real world.

Ultimately, I would say that the skills that I have gained from this experience has made me realize what I am capable of. My confidence has skyrocketed and I am extremely grateful that I was able to experience this opportunity. I took this program by the horns and I pushed myself to embrace the confusion. I made amazing connections with people and learned so much about the world of technology. I know that this is definitely something that I want to do with my life and hope to only go on more adventures like this one.