Fear of Coding

About Us

This website and story were created for Digital Publishing with Will Luers in November, 2022.

Contributors

Courtney Minden: Web Designer
Jessica Grubbs: Multimedia Designer
Jessica Unruh: Web Designer
Kylie Sickles: Managing Editor and Lead Writer
Ryan Doherty: Copy Editor and Multimedia Designer

Our Personal Hero's Journeys

Courtney Minden: "My first experience in coding was literally my 2nd year in college in DTC 201 with a final on designing web pages. I got a html kit to get me started on the project. When I first opened the html I was a little disoriented with all of the text on the html, but there were a couple hints to help me learn what everything does. I started to just play around and used the actual website as a reminder of what to change because I didn't know I could put notes in (plus there were a lot of notes already inside the document). I gradually taught myself how to style and add elements for me and learned how to break what I needed to be placed into a new paragraph. Overall I thought it was a lot of fun and wanted to learn more after my first experience. Coding for me was a lot of fun and as I learned more about the “rules” of coding, I got better and was enjoying it more."

Jessica Grubbs: "My journey started in 2019 when I left the world of acupuncture behind. I love science and art. That has motivated my love for backend development. My fear comes from the start of opening your text editor. As soon as I can visualize what is on the page, I can compartmentalize each code block, each function, each loop and go from there. Take it in stride. Keep practicing and don’t assume you have to know it all. Coding is a never ending journey."

Jessica Unruh: "I started learning about coding and web development when I was thirteen or fourteen. I wanted to customize the appearance of forums, so I slowly learned how HTML and CSS worked. It was incredibly frustrating but grew on me. I loved seeing the changes I could make. Later on that turned into an interest in web hosting, and later still into computer science. One of the main things that drew me to it was the fact that I could create something out of nothing. I tried going through computer science and though I loved programming, I couldn’t stomach taking multiple classes of advanced mathematics and physics. I flip-flopped for a while between computer science and psychology before I landed in the DTC program. I’m happy with learning and advancing my knowledge in web design and development, and DTC was the best fit for that."

Kylie Sickles: "I started coding with python in high school, and I felt really happy with it because that class focused on programming visual or game based projects. I started a computer science degree in college, but I only felt happy with the projects that were closer to front end development. In other projects, I would feel really discouraged and always felt that my peers were "getting it" faster than I was. It was frustrating and a little bit isolating. Then, I switched to DTC. I still want to do programming, so I'm going into front end design. This semester has been my biggest exposure to html and css - they are their own beast. With html and css, small mistakes can make very dramatic visual differences, which can be discouraging when you can’t figure out the bug. Also, learning grid was confusing for me, and my first grid project was behind those of my peers. I did eventually figure it out tho, which felt great! I am so excited to have finally found a place that feels right for me."

Ryan Doherty: "There's something in my essence that enjoys finding out how things work. My favorite show growing up was Modern Marvels. On the show, the narrator would talk about the processes of how an everyday product would be created. Maybe it was how a certain candy was mass produced, how aluminum was recycled, or how mountain roads are created. I just loved knowing how it all came together. That's where my interest in coding came from. My desire to learn and understand how things work at their core. I learned some Python a few years ago and it led me to DTC where I plan to specialize in web development and design."