The hour between his classes at Pursuit and the overnight shift at Duane Reade.
His 30-minute break for dinner.
On the long subway ride home from work.
Every moment he had, Pursuit Fellow Isaiah Collazo wrote code. He cleaned up bugs. He put the finishing touches on yet another project.
It took hard work, long nights, and failing more than a few times. But it was all worth it: Isaiah and his group, Jovanni Luna and Sihame Bazi, recently completed their first full-featured web app and presented it at our 6.4 Technical Showcase.
The Technical Showcase is a major milestone on our Fellows’ journeys to becoming professional software developers. It’s a chance for them to present their capstone project before an audience of industry experts, mentors, volunteers, and colleagues. And it's a chance to show off the technical and professional skills they gained during our rigorous, 12-month Fellowship.
“Twelve months ago, our web developers came to Pursuit with little to no coding experience,” Jukay Hsu, co-founder and CEO of Pursuit, told the Pursuit community members gathered on Zoom. “But what unites all of our Fellows are fundamental characteristics to success: grit, passion, and determination. It's really incredible to see how far they’ve come.”
People from across the Pursuit community offered praise for the products and presentations. Mike Boyle, an all-star Pursuit volunteer and senior software engineer at Codecademy, took to Twitter to offer his kudos:
WeRise A community-driven, virtual skillshare video chat platform that empowers users to share knowledge and know-how so they can advance their lives and livelihoods. WeRise enables spaces for equity, mutual aid, and socioeconomic justice.
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Built By:
Nilber Remon
Deja Flynn
John Jones
Triphikers Enables users to meet and take trips with other like-minded travelers. Whether you want to backpack through Europe or take a road trip from New York to California, Triphikers will connect people who want to discover the world together.
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Built By:
Jovanni Luna
Isaiah Collazo
Sihame Bazi
Tinni Makes day planning problem free and shareable, allowing users to create itineraries based on the time and location of their activities and send it to their friends and family.
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Built By:
Brandon Brown
Rafid Hossain
Jay Fowler
Doug Morocho
Zoovio Allows pet owners to receive care for their pets from anywhere. Built for our remote world, Zoovio lets users to search for vets, make appointments, and receive care for their pets from home.
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Built By:
Danilov Laurent
Ohidur Rahman
Samantha Jimenez
Uduakabasi Abaisiurua
AfroLink Honors and celebrates Black entrepreneurship by enabling users to discover and patronize authentic Black-owned businesses and services in their community.
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Built By:
Maria Martinez
Congsong Yang
Crystal Cardona
Kevin Brutus
Roadie An all-in-one booking platform for artists and clients, designed to remove the hassle of event booking and make the music industry more successful.
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Built By:
Ashya Manning
Kevin Wong
Henry Nunez
Marvin Thompson
Technical Showcase and other Pursuit events such as Hackathon and Demo Day wouldn’t be possible without our community of volunteers. Engineers from Google, Finesse, Dataminir, and Clorox, and designers from mParticle served as mentors, helping Fellows build the technical and design aspects of their projects.
While Technical Showcase is an important milestone, there’s so much more ahead. Next, our Fellows will embark on their search for their first jobs in tech. We’re excited by the next stage of the journey, and we’ll continue to be there for our Fellows every step of the way.
Interested in sponsoring a Pursuit event or volunteering to support our Fellows? Visit our Volunteer page.
