Owen Hiland ’22

Code Platoon, Chicago, IL

Over the course of this past summer, I spent 12 amazing weeks with an organization called Code Platoon, a Chicago-based non-profit that prepares veterans and spouses of veterans of the United States military to enter into careers as software developers. They do this over the course of a 14-week program, culminating in the placement of veterans with sponsor companies who have pledged to hire graduates of the program. My work as a TA Intern involved attending daily lectures and assisting students with programming assignments as complex as creating complete websites with fully formed front and back-end services. I also worked with my fellow intern to create a three-day curriculum on data science from scratch, a project which involved drawing on my previous knowledge of coding and data science procedures. The curriculum will be used to teach future classes of students, and is perhaps the most lasting impact I made on the organization—the knowledge that my work will contribute to the learning of students I haven’t met is truly incredible to me, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have done such work.

The Code Platoon organization had many wonderful employees, from my fellow TA Intern Jacob to the instructors of the courses to the founder of the organization, whom I saw every day working to secure funding and obtain corporate sponsorships and employment opportunities for future classes of students. Perhaps the most impactful interactions I had, however, were with the students enrolled in the program. Since every student had formerly been in the U.S. military, I felt I had a lot to learn from each and every one of them. One student had worked on a nuclear submarine, and talked about what life was like when he was underwater for months at a time. Another, Holly, an Arabic interpreter, talked about her unlikely journey to her profession—while considering college, a friend encouraged her to take an aptitude test and she discovered she was a top candidate for the army’s language program. While the students came from diverse backgrounds and had all taken meandering paths into and through the military, they all had one thing in common: a desire to learn. The Code Platoon program is not easy; it is weeks of long lectures, late nights working on assignments, and a relentless pace of information which must be mastered quickly in order to move on to the next topic. I was stunned by how much effort the students put in just to be able to keep up with the program, and after fourteen weeks I wouldn’t have a clue that some of them hadn’t written a piece of code before applying to Code Platoon. I think this speaks to both Code Platoon’s mission and the particular qualities that the students, as veterans, bring to the table. Students are motivated to study, to learn, and to grow as programmers and as people in order to make the most of the opportunity a program like Code Platoon offers. The work ethics I saw were immense, and across the board I saw students giving 110% on every assignment. I saw that those who did the best were quick to recognize when they were stuck and ask for help, but gave themselves time to try and work out their problems on their own first. I saw how students dealt with different kinds of frustration than they might have faced in the military; now, the enemy was not a combatant on the battlefield but a piece of text on a screen. Most of all, I saw the kind of grit and determination that lead them to decide to try their hands at something completely knew, knowing that it would not be easy. While some students were young and in their twenties, others were in their fifties and had seen full careers in the military already. To open themselves up to frustration and disappointment in the hopes that they might improve their lives was inspiring.

Personally, I benefitted a great deal from the exposure to new elements of programming that are highly relevant to my field of study. While I did not enjoy some aspects of web development, I was reminded daily of the joys of picking up a new set of programming tools and slowly becoming more confident with them. The process of struggling with the challenge of learning new material has kept me in good mental shape, and I am deeply looking forward to being back at Williams. I can say with certainty that I would still love to work in tech, but most likely not in web development. Furthermore, the importance of taking care of our nation’s veterans was impressed upon me. I feel such great respect for the people who served and continue to serve our country, and I would love to continue to work with our veterans whenever possible.

I am so grateful to have worked for such a great cause this summer. Many thanks for the generous support I was given; I hope you approve of the work I have done!