My transformative journey at TIIDElab cohort 6.0 prefellowship.

I first heard about @TIIDElab from a friend who participated in the TIIDElab cohort 5.0. At that time, I had just rejected a significant project as a web designer because it required some coding knowledge that I didn't possess. My friend suggested TIIDElab, and that’s how I discovered their cohorts. I followed their social media page on Twitter and was impressed by the posts, student testimonials, and progress updates. Eager to be part of this community, I applied as soon as the form was released and was admitted into the 6.0 prefellowship cohort.

On Thursday, June 20, 2024, we had our onboarding program, welcoming all participants to the cohort, led by the program coordinator, Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju Adedapo. We learned about the duties ahead and the importance of remaining committed and focused. The opportunity to participate in the six-week prefellowship program at TIIDElab was incredible and life-changing.

To ensure effective communication, every participant was added to a WhatsApp group. Additionally, there was a Discord group where we accessed our learning materials, assignments, progress updates, achievements, and addressed any concerns regarding our learning. This organization and coordination are hallmarks of TIIDElab.

During the first week, we had our initial town hall meeting, where class governors and assistants were elected by vote from all participants. This election occurred weekly at every town hall meeting. Kudos to all the class governors and assistants elected from the first to the sixth week at TIIDElab; they all performed their duties tremendously well.

Our coding journey began right after onboarding. "Code with Uncle Bigbay" started on the first day, with our initial learning material titled "Set Up Your Website Development Toolkit for 2024," complete with assignments and submission deadlines. We delved into HTML and CSS, learning how to build a barbershop landing page with both desktop and mobile designs. Uncle Bigbay’s learning materials always come with assignments, and we were given our first individual project: designing a portfolio website using HTML and CSS. This project tested our knowledge of what we had been taught so far. Additionally, we had Python and AI live classes, the main focus of the prefellowship.

One of the moments that always made my heart race was evaluation day. Every activity was evaluated, and those who didn't perform well were evicted. I'm grateful to have passed every evaluation and made it this far.

TIIDElab isn't just about coding; we also had soft skills sessions. We had four sessions hosted by Mr. Shams. The first session was about attitude. It was an interactive and interesting class where I learned a lot about the right and wrong attitudes and how others' attitudes can influence us. The second session focused on presentation skills, where Mr. Shams explained the difference between presentation and public speaking. I enjoyed this session immensely because I realized I had been doing both incorrectly. The third session, led by Mrs. Cynthia Shobayo, was about storytelling, emphasizing effective storytelling in product marketing and presentation skills. The fourth and final session focused on article and profile writing skills. It was fascinating to learn the importance of writing articles and strategies for writing good ones, as well as the components of a good profile: introduction, employment status, skill sets, education, and hobbies. These soft skills sessions were my favorite part of TIIDElab because I learned many basic things not typically taught in a classroom. Thanks to Mr. Shams for always providing interesting and insightful sessions

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Teamwork is another essential aspect of TIIDElab. During the first week, we were asked to choose our accountability partners—people to work with personally and assist each other where needed. I have two accountability partners: Destiny Oransanya and Caleb Silas, whom I call my tech friends. We were also grouped into ten different teams. I was in Team 1, which we named Tech Pioneers, a name I suggested. My team was remarkable due to our serious-minded members, strong bond, cooperation, hard work, and collective effort. Every team was assigned a project to develop, and ours was an AI summarizer website named BriefIT. We had a mentor, Mrs. Damilola Oyedunmade, who supervised and oversaw our progress. We held our first team meeting with her and began working on our project. So far, we’ve had four sprint presentations to showcase our progress, and we are now nearing the completion of our product. I can't wait to share it with everyone.

I'm deeply grateful to @TIIDElab for this incredible opportunity provided to us free of charge. I'm thrilled to be part of this great family and grateful for the connections I’ve made in the tech world. I want to use this medium to appreciate our coordinator, Mr. Shamsudeen Aderoju Adedapo, for making this journey manageable. Mr. Shams greatly contributed to my success, and I am most grateful. Thanks to all our teachers, coaches, and mentors for their significant impact and contributions to this journey. We truly can't thank you enough; may God bless and reward you all.

As we approach our graduation week and wrap up our team project, I want to congratulate everyone who made it this far. Happy graduation in advance to us all.