Akanksha Singh

Akanksha Singh had a winding road to success in computer science. She has persevered and has served many important roles in the MLH community.

A good teacher can influence a student’s future; she was fortunate enough to have one in high school. That teacher encouraged her to explore computer programming, explaining the details so well that she mastered her coursework effortlessly. She realized her love of building and problem-solving would be ideal for a computer science major, so she launched into CS at her university.

Her undergraduate journey was rockier than expected. She didn’t have the guidance and support she’d had in high school and briefly lost her programming focus, but she would rediscover it and major in CS.

In early 2020, Akanksha discovered hackathons. She saw their potential, but was hesitant to enter one. In the summer of 2020, she finally went for it. HackJaipur was her entry into Major League Hacking (MLH) hackathons, and the experience changed her entire outlook. At the hackathon, she and a friend created a mental health app called Dost, reviewing Flutter tutorials and working diligently to complete their project before the deadline. They ended up placing in the top 15 projects out of more than 200 submissions and winning the top all-girls team award. Akanksha’s confidence in her technical skills and ideas was back.

From then on, she entered hackathon after hackathon, winning several along the way. As she progressed through the events, her focus shifted, and she wanted to provide the mentorship she missed out on in her undergraduate years. Being a mentor and a judge at multiple hackathons gave her a platform to help other hackers and provide constructive criticism to improve their ideas. Some of the many events she judged or mentored at included HackHarvard, Hack BMU 5.0, Hack4Inclusion, and HackTheNorth, among others.

Her drive and curiosity stayed strong, and she entered a Masters of Computer Applications program, where she dove into coding clubs, workshops, and hackathons. These accomplishments boosted her self-confidence and helped her pass her knowledge to others. Earlier in her career, she had doubts about her ideas, but her master’s coursework, hackathons, and MLH rekindled her passion for CS. She says, “I felt that my love for coding, which I had during my high school days, was back, and I started learning new programming languages, tech stack, and joined many tech communities.”

Her path to personal satisfaction took time and effort but paid off well. Besides judging and mentoring hackathons, she jumped into hosting workshops, including at KurinjiHacks, HackOdisha2021, and TechTogether Chicago 2022. She also organized an International All Girls Hackathon, impacting hundreds of young women, many of whom now plan to major in Computer Science. Through a hackathon, she even received an internship and a full-time offer from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Akanksha’s path has come full circle. She has evolved from hackathon attendee to mentor and judge to community event organizer. Coder Jedi, her YouTube channel, offers advice and resources to the entire hacker community—just another way that she is paying it forward.