After finding out about Code the Dream through an email from her community college, Paola decided to take one of our classes last October. She knew she wanted to have some kind of an education, but she also had a hard time finding the right direction for her career: ‘‘Nothing was really sticking with me and that is why I tried Code the Dream, to try something different.’’ CTD turned out to be the right choice for her, as she finally realized that programming is what she really enjoys doing: ‘‘My experience at Code the Dream has been amazing. I feel like I’m more passionate now and more secure in knowing that this is what I want to do and I think Code the Dream really helped with that. There’s so many different people doing different things and applying code differently. Peer reviewing has been really helpful and that’s not something I have never had access to before.’’
She admits that peer learning and reviewing is something that made a big impact on her in terms of retaining information. Both her peers and our mentors were the main reasons she enjoyed her time at Code the Dream: ‘‘I love all the mentors, everyone is super helpful. We have everyone at our fingertips, you can send a direct message to anybody you need to reach out to and ask specific questions. The mentors are very also available, we have different mentor sessions to choose from. I have enjoyed the whole process and I have loved getting to know different people, especially my peers. We struggle together and that keeps me motivated because I’m not alone at having a hard time.’’