My Work Experience at Acorn Aspirations
Katie Nyarko
On Tuesday and Wednesday this week, I was fortunate enough to be invited back to do work experience with Acorn Aspirations. You may have seen my blog post about my previous work experience with them, when I spent a day at MassChallenge UK last year discussing social media strategy.
This time I went to Wayra, at Piccadilly Circus. The security is tight, so I had a pass card to ‘beep’ in and out every time I went to the toilet!
We set up in the cafe, where we where ‘hotdesking’, and started uploading case studies to the Acorn Aspirations website. Later on, we were joined by Snezana, a girl who attended the Acorn Aspirations Accelerator for just one day and has now given up her job and school to become a full-time entrepreneur.
Elena struck up a conversation with a lady who was in charge of a similar event to an AA hackathon, a ‘Girls in ICT Day’ event. They arranged a spontaneous meeting for the next day to discuss possible partnership in the future.
Elena shocked me when, while we were on the tube on the way home, she invited me to join her in Parliament the next day for a #BeBoldForChange event, focusing on peace and International Women’s Day. Of course I accepted!
The next day, we met early to attend the meeting arranged the day before. It was in an even bigger building, with massive lifts and rows upon rows of long desks and chairs. We grabbed some fruit and drinks before heading inside a little room for the meeting.
It was arranged that I would moderate a panel for the next Girls in ICT day, and that me and my friends would pitch ‘AlienHack’, an app that teaches kids to code. Happy with how the meeting turned out, we headed back to Wayra.
I was given the task of creating a chatbot for the Acorn Aspirations Facebook page, which I did using Chatfuel. It only took me an hour or two to create a full-featured chatbot which is now live on their Facebook page - check it out here.
Suddenly we started hearing rumours about a stabbing at Parliament, so I checked it quickly on the news. It didn’t take us long to realize that it was more than just a rumour - Parliament had been closed off! We contacted the man in charge of the event and he informed us that the venue had been changed.
We did get to attend the event after all, though unfortunately not at Parliament. Several things really stood out for me –
“Don’t be afraid – be bold.”
“Follow your dreams, don’t worry about money.”
It was great to see so many older women passionate about what they were doing to achieve their dreams and make the world a better place.
Overall, I’m happy with how this week has turned out. I got to use WordPress, learnt how to make a chatbot, visited an AI expert at Idea London, and attended a Parliamentarian talk. I’m looking forward to what next Tuesday will bring!
Katie Nyarko
Original post - http://bit.ly/2o1we25
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Also published on Medium.