Django Girls Workshop!

Fusionbox hosted the first ever Django Girls Denver workshop on Saturday, October 3rd, 2015.

Django Girls is a non-profit organization that empowers and helps women to organize free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support.

Django Girls provided some great resources, from the tutorial itself to templates for Django-inspired temporary tattoos. Having these resources available greatly eased the planning process for us, and helped to shape the event. We had a total of 23 students, 8 coaches, 2 organizers and a ton of fun learning.  Each coach had a group of 3-4 students.  This was a self-guided workshop where each student was to go through the tutorial provided online.  When stuck or if they had questions, a coach would be available to help.  

Eighty-seven percent of our students completed the tutorial.  However, it’s not just about completing the tutorial.  We encourage students to ask questions and understand why they are typing what they are typing.  

The end result of everyone’s project was a basic blog using the Django framework and learning how to publish it through the web using PythonAnywhere.  The experience of our attendees ranged from having coded in Python previously to total beginners.  

Fusionbox provided snacks, decorations, breakfast, lunch, internet, and of course, the space.  We wanted to create an atmosphere where women would feel comfortable to ask questions about programming and learn.

We’d like to thank our fabulous coaches:

• Gavin Wahl
• Bradley Gordon
• Julian Andrews
• Emily Williamson
• Nolan Stover
• Chris Proto
• Alex Bliskovksy
• Brian Rosner

Let’s not forget our organizers:

• Kaye Wattawa
• Paula Lee

And last but not least, we’d like to thank all of our participants for giving up their Saturday to attend our free all-day workshop!

Fusionbox is considering coordinating another Django Girls workshop in 6 months. 

For more information on volunteering or attending a workshop, contact us!