Jasmine Brown

Jasmine Brown started coding at 10 years old after she discovered Scratch. “I loved making little games and animations!” she recalls. Her grandfather encouraged her interest by asking her to build a website about his garden. “I really enjoyed the whole process of creating the website, especially getting to maintain it for a couple of years - I used to redesign the site and add more features like a virtual tour round the garden,” Jasmine says. That’s how the coding seed took root.

When Jasmine’s grandfather gifted her a Raspberry Pi, her love for computer technology grew. Jasmine used this to teach herself Python. Her love for languages and technologies flourished, and computer science quickly became her favorite subject. She eventually chose to study computer science at the University of Warwick.

As she neared her second year of university studies in 2021, she received a message from WarwickTECH. The team had reached out to Jasmine after hearing that she’d be a good fit for the organization, and she joined the team as an associate.

She was soon offered the role of principal organizer, a key role that would require her to build the hacker community, organize Local Hack Days (now Global Hack Week), and spearhead the hallmark event known as WarwickHACK 2022. Not only was Jasmine brand new to the organization, but she also hadn’t attended a hackathon before. “I’d been thinking about going to one for a while, but I was slightly apprehensive about whether I’d fit in or what I’d create,” she explains. She took on an additional challenge by deciding to run a hybrid hackathon, which was a new idea for WarwickHACK and made it their first event with in-person participants in three years.

Jasmine sought guidance from the previous principal and from Major League Hacking (MLH). Armed with that support, she turned her focus toward recruitment. She thought creatively and reached out to prospective candidates via LinkedIn Recruiter. She recruited a team that reflected a diverse range of ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. “I passionately believe that anyone can (and should) get into tech, so it was really important to me to use my leadership position to promote diversity,” Jasmine states. Most of the hackers hadn’t been to hackathons, and many were beginners. “It was an exciting new experience for everyone involved!” Jasmine says.

Jasmine loved seeing firsthand how technology and coding could be so collaborative: something especially meaningful for someone who was self-taught and has mostly worked on projects and assignments independently. Jasmine says that the best part of the weekend was “getting to speak to all of the different hackers, to provide guidance on their projects and share my own skills where I could.” For example, she helped a couple of first-time hackers get to grips with Git. “I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to join and build the hacker community.”

Jasmine’s experience with this hackathon was truly life-changing. “I wouldn’t have known that I could almost single-handedly run an event that 210 people would want to sign up for!” she says. From liaising with sponsors, recruiting mentors and judges, securing funding, forming partnerships, and leading a team, Jasmine gained new skills and confidence. “It made me realize how much impact I could have on the tech community,” she says.