Congratulations to Duyen Ho – the winner of the inaugural Girl Geek Academy Scholarship! Duyen will complete General Assembly’s Web Development Immersive Scholarship WDI9 from September 26th to December 15th 2016.
Duyen has been trying to make a career change into web development for a full year. She has been teaching herself to code for the past six months. She spends every spare dollar she gets learning to code and discussing development with other aspiring developers. She had actual tears of happiness when we let her know she was the winner of this scholarship.
The wonderful team at General Assembly followed a 6 step selection process to assess the candidates motivation, technical ability and overall suitability for the Web Development Immersive course, valued at $15,500.
Step 1: Initial Application Form
Potential candidates were asked to complete an application form. The form asked candidates about their previous experiences, coding level, goals, motivation and time commitment available for the course.
Step 2: Application Form Review
Application forms were then reviewed by the General Assembly Admissions Team. We looked favourably on applications that conveyed genuine excitement for the opportunity, detailed how the opportunity could change their lives and people that had a passion for coding.
Step 3: Shortlisted Candidates Contacted
The Admissions Team then spoke to a shortlist of people that suited the requirements for the role to ensure their goals aligned with what the course could provide. The shortlist was refined to a list of 4 suitable candidates.
Step 4: Pre Interview Project
Successful candidates were then asked to complete a small project that would assess their technical ability across HTML, CSS and JavaScript. We asked candidates to be creative in their projects and try do something unique.
Step 5: On-Campus Interview
The successful 4 shortlisted candidates were then asked to come on to campus for a 30 to 45 minute interview. This interview was to understand the candidates and their background more deeply and to really emphasise the workload associated with the course. This was also the time we worked through the candidates projects and asked what there challenges were and what they enjoyed.
Step 6: Final Review of Candidates
The final stage of the process was to discuss all candidates that were shortlisted and to determine who the successful candidate would be. The Admissions Team really wanted to find someone that would benefit from the life changing nature of the course and someone who had no hesitations in putting in the work required to be successful.
Congratulations to everyone that applied – there can only be one winner, but even going through the process of recognising why the Web Development Immersive might be a path you want to take is a huge achievement.
We look forward to following Duyen’s journey as she embarks on this new phase of her Girl Geek career!
As always we are grateful for the support of General Assembly Melbourne for bringing this opportunity to life. If you’re interested in learning more about the upcoming WDI courses at General Assembly, you can find out more here.
