"Hands on" in a virtual world.
Tags: hackathon, handson, lifeskill, developer
Published: 2020-08-11 04:49:04

#Background
More than a month ago, we [posted](https://dev.to/qikpikstore/monsoon-quarantine-opensource-and-the-2020-uncertainties-of-student-life-k7a) about bridging a student audience traumatised by the uncertainties of the pandemic, with career professionals willing to share their skillsets in an easily accessible technology - frontend development.

#Status - hands on in a virtual world
![Alt Text](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/l4ee7upmgy2mgrb2ydzl.png)
We're thrilled to say that after two weekend sessions, we've had some serious hands-on work and elated students and mentors alike. While the first weekend found a little starting trouble, the mentors were dogged in their determination and in the end the students who stayed with them, profited by gaining the ability to actually write a "Hello world" in kotlin! Some of the students were so inspired that they requested to join the subsequent sessions - this feedback was shared with the mentor community, and based on their feedback, we took out all quotas and limits to participate in the subsequent hackathons!

#Feedback - Why doesn't everyone know about this!?
Feedback from students was amazing and encouraging. We were repeatedly asked - "why are my friends missing out ?!", "you should have promoted this much more!". Alas, access to the student community is gated either by small minded moderators on chat channels, or drowned out in the noise of highly funded media blitzkriegs. Our media team is essentially the highly capable and amazing [Sreepriya](https://linkedin.com/in/rksreepriya) of the [Pehia Foundation](https://www.pehia.org/) - huge shoutout! The best way for her to reach you is if you tell your friends about her posts on [twitter](https://twitter.com/qikpikstore) and [facebook](https://www.facebook.com/opensourcehackathon/). Re-tweet and share!

#Students - Help us to help you!
Be an ambassador for the amazing opportunity that the rest of this series of hackathons provide. The weekends of 15,16 Aug will be led by the very amazing team led by Pratik Jain and Steven Deobald. Between them, they have more than 25 years of core Engineering, Management and Development experience. The weekend after (21,22 Aug) will be our final session with iOS/Swift being taught by an equally amazing team. Some of the co-mentors are signing in from overseas. Speakers vary from IT experts in Bangalore, an Open Source activist, Art/Media researcher from MIT and even a part time flutist to serenade you on breaks! Help us to help you access these events by getting your friends to sign up! If you haven't already, please sign up for the remaining two sessions here: https://qikpik.store/hackathon

#Mentors - there is another way!
These sessions would never have happened without our mentors. These are kind hearted people who offered their time and effort for FREE. You would normally have to queue up in an interview just to be able to work with them, and yet here they were selflessly throwing away their weekends to educate strangers! It puts our current world based on "what's in it for me" to shame. They have proved that there is another way! Mentors - from the team at [QikPik](https://qikpik.store) - you are showing us ... that there is another way!