Each month, Code the Dream celebrates one volunteer who has made a special contribution to our community. We’re excited to celebrate Rio Edwards, a class mentor in our Intro to Programming and React.js classes. Students consistently praise Rio as dedicated, supportive, and a natural teacher. Thanks, Rio, for your commitment to our students!
Tell us a little about yourself.
Choosing a career that made sense for me was a long, arduous journey. I dropped out of college twice and spent years feeling like a failure. But, things turned around when I discovered my love for coding! It “clicked” for me and gave me a newfound confidence in myself. I opted to finish college with a 2 year degree, and for the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed school!
After graduating, I spent a summer learning independently through websites like FreeCodeCamp, Udemy, and The Odin Project. At the time, I was working at a food pantry and the COVID lockdown was in full force. This meant no one was around to disturb my peace while I binged Udemy courses at work! Eventually, I ended up at a coding boot camp and felt like I found my people!
I’ve still faced plenty of challenges, and I definitely didn’t “ride off into the sunset”, but my life has improved so much because I discovered coding. Learning to code was truly the most empowering and liberating thing I’ve ever done.
Why did you get involved with Code the Dream?
After finishing my coding boot camp, I was plopped into a tough job market with minimal work history. I was overflowing with passion for coding, but I needed more hands-on experience. On top of that, I needed another outlet because my non-tech-y friends were tired of hearing me try to explain the difference between depth-first-search and breadth-first search. Their eyes would usually just glaze over at this point… whoops!
So, becoming a mentor at Code The Dream was the obvious next step for me! I get to talk to people from all walks of life about my favorite subject. I’m improving my technical skills, soft skills, and my resume, all while helping people! It’s a win, win, win!
What has been meaningful about your experience with Code the Dream?
I love helping to empower students because I see myself in them!
I had a mentor during the only coding class I ever took in college. I was in over my head because I had skipped ahead and had to learn all of the material from the previous courses in addition to the current one. It felt almost impossible, but I was able to do it with the help of my mentor! She set me up for success, and it changed the trajectory of my life.
The most meaningful part of my experience here at Code the Dream is knowing that I could be that person for someone else! I could be the difference between someone giving up or powering through. Learning to code is hard, and many beginners are just one merge conflict away from tossing their computer out the window (um… I mean “throwing in the towel”). It only takes a few hours out of my week to make a big impact in these students’ lives, so I feel compelled to help!
Also, they keep telling me I’m a good teacher, which makes me feel good 🙂
Several students shared about why they appreciate Rio:
Rio has been doing exceptionally well as a mentor. Not only has he answered and help me via DM but took the time which was almost two hours today to go through our questions and make us all feel confident. I am so impressed with his dedication.
Amber, Intro to Programming student
Rio is awesome! As always can’t sing him enough praises.
Madel, Intro to Programming student
Rio Edwards has been a huge help! he has lots of availability that I appreciate and he walks and really breaks down step by step coding sessions we’ve had to make the material easier to grasp and understand. A huge “thank you” to him!
Nicole, React.js student
I really enjoy the way Rio holds his sessions! Having slides and examples to review the concepts before tackling the code brings on a lot of clarity.
Victoria, React.js student had skipped ahead and had to learn all of the material from the previous courses in addition to the current one. It felt almost impossible, but I was able to do it with the help of my mentor! She set me up for success, and it changed the trajectory of my life.
