Alayna Nguyen

As a young hacker facing first-time jitters and doubts, Alayna found it challenging to get involved in the hacker community. Inspired by these early challenges and experience at Huskie Hack 2017 and PixelHacks IV, Alayna decided to create her own local event for young hackers.

Over the course of several months, Alayna and her friends built relationships with sponsors, created and fine-tuned rubrics for judging criteria, and organized workshops as they built towards Hack for the World. Seeing herself reflected in over 50 participating hackers, she helped them gain an understanding of common coding languages, helping them overcome doubts about their abilities. Of the experience, she said “being a part of the hackathon community has allowed me to leverage my experiences to empower others.”

Hack for the World’s impact on the local hacking community in Naperville has been crucial, inspiring students to explore careers in STEM fields and spawning a network of like-minded peers with a love of programming. Alayna recalls her heart warming as she watched teams of new hackers proudly presenting their projects to the judges, no doubt partially inspired by the kindness and encouragement she had given them.

Alayna says she was first driven to extend her hospitality to others by her aunt-in-law’s grandmother, a magnanimous relative who first greeted her with a smile and a bowl of bún riêu, a traditional Vietnamese soup. Though initially nervous at first meeting her extended family, she felt immediately welcomed. Alayna credits her Vietnamese heritage and community for her kindness and ability to put others first. “This perspective of putting people first and creating spaces where people of all backgrounds and experiences feel welcome is very important to me,” she said, “and I practice these ideas to strengthen my hacker community!”

She embodies this spirit through her mentorship of students and other hackers. When working in teams, Alayna aims to empower her peers, fill knowledge gaps, and foster collaborative conversations. Alayna loves that hackathons give everyone a chance to learn.

Alayna is currently the Hacker Experience Team Lead at DivHacks, a Major League Hacking (MLH) Member event at Columbia University. In this role, she helped organize 36 hours of continuous workshops, panels, and activities for over 200 hackers. In keeping with this year’s theme of sustainability, Alayna recruited the keynote speakers for DivHacks, including two Columbia University professors and Catherine D’Ignazio, author of Data Feminism. Lending her own personal flair, Alayna also helped organize fun activities like a spicy ramen challenge, a cross-campus scavenger hunt, and legendary boba-breaks meant to bring people of different backgrounds together. Her resume also includes a current term as Vice President for Columbia University’s Women and Gender Diverse in Computer Science (WiCS), not to mention attending more than 30 hackathons since 2017. In August of 2022, Alayna represented DivHacks at MLH Hackcon 2022. Her favorite hackathon to date has been HackPrinceton 2022, where she and her team were awarded Best Art Hack, Best Use of Estuary, and a grant from the 1517 Fund for their work on ArtHub.