It’s not often you hear a coding class being described as “heartwarming,” but that’s what organizer Constance Ip said of RailsBridge Philadelphia’s first-ever workshop, which we previewed last month. The free class was at at RevZilla’s Navy Yard headquarters last weekend.
“It was very heartwarming to see the amount of patience and passion they exhibited as they helped struggling students navigate through the apps they were building,” Ip said of the workshop’s 14 mentors, who helped 40 students develop and deploy their own apps
Along with co-organizer and RevZilla dev Lindsay Nauman, RailsBridge Philadelphia is an established chapter of a national nonprofit founded in San Francisco in 2009. The organization’s goal is spreading the word of the Ruby on Rails programming framework while pushing for diversity in tech.
“This being our first RailsBridge in Philadelphia, the event definitely went better than either myself or my co-organizer had expected,” Ip said in an email.
And it's a wrap! Successful first @RailsBridgePHL weekend event! pic.twitter.com/9w7qBW4eca
— Constance Ip (@C_ip) December 3, 2016
So, in spite of the movement being so young, why is RevZilla (along with Linode, New York Code + Design Academy and Chariot Solutions) supporting the effort to establish a local chapter of the nonprofit? Besides the fact that one of their own (Nauman) is leading the charge, the company said it was also a good way to help local talent grow.
“RevZilla is committed to helping develop the tech and startup industry in Philadelphia, in order to foster homegrown talent and spark their abilities to become our next generation of tech leaders,” RevZilla’s CTO Nick Auger said in a press release. “We are constantly seeking more developers to join our team, and this event was a great way to get people excited about tech and the possibilities that exist within the tech space.”
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