Alessandro, age 12
St Edmund’s College
What was the name of the event you have attended?
#AcornHack 2016 - November 2016, ThoughtWorks
Why did you choose to come to an Acorn Aspirations hackathon?
Before AcornHack I was quite keen on technology and wanted to visit so I could learn more about it and start to learn how to code.
Have you done coding or any form of technology prior to coming to the hack?
Yes, I had used lots of simple drag-and-drop coding sites such as Scratch, and I had started to try to code with Python just before I came to the Hackathon.
What were the top three skills (not necessarily coding) that you learnt as a result of the hackathon?
Prototyping, Pitching, Basic HTML and CSS coding.
How have you used the skills since your participation?
I am a lot more confident about pitching my ideas to people and how to make my idea seem interesting to people I pitch to. I am also starting to learn more HTML and CSS so I can help to code our website Revi-C.
What would you say were the highlights or funniest moments with Acorn Aspirations?
I loved the way our groups created targets and had to work on them to move them across to “Finished” on our progress board. This built confidence and determination when I completed a task. I loved learning how to code HTML and CSS and I wished we could have spent more time learning how to code in the Hackathon.
What kind of projects have you been developing and what was your inspiration behind them?
Our group, Base 2, have been working together to create our revision website, Revi-C. We developed the idea for this site from the troubles we have as young teenagers, such as having to carry so many books everywhere, and to revise, we just had to sit down and read textbooks for ages, which was very boring. We created this website to help people like us.
How do you hope to use the tech and entrepreneurship skills you have learnt at Acorn Aspirations in the future?
I am very keen on technology and programming, and I hope to use the skills I have learnt to become more advanced and to have the skills and knowledge to find a great job in technology that I enjoy and to make things for other people to use and enjoy.