Blog

We get lots of questions from alums and donors about how the Ada Loan Fund works.  We know it’s a bit confusing so we wanted to put together the following guide to bring clarity.  Access to low-cost, unsecured loans is hard for many students, so this is where Ada steps in to help fill the gaps so students can cover living expenses while they attend Ada.  We recognize that some students could receive loans from conventional banks which have more…

By Jared Maddox (he/him), Instructor  Hi! I’m Jared Maddox, my pronouns are he/him and I’m very excited to join as an Instructor here at Ada! Before graduating from The University of Texas I got to join part-time staff at Lanier High School as a Tutor. By the time a graduated and moved to Seattle, I knew I loved teaching. I volunteered with Treehouse as a Tutor to satisfy my itch to teach while I worked at Amazon Music as a…

By Becca Elenzil (she/her), Instructor  Greetings! I’m Becca and I’m super excited to join Ada as a classroom instructor. I’ve worked as a middle and high school math and computer science teacher for the last five years, most recently at the Bush School in Seattle. At Bush I taught a number of different courses, primarily in Python, including Fundamentals of CS, Game Design, Data Structures & Algorithms, and Data Science. I also taught creative coding electives including Apps for Good…

We’re excited to welcome two new Alums as Advisory Board Members!  We caught up with Miriam Cortes from Cohort 6 to get an inside look on how Ada impacted she and her vision for board involvement.   Miriam Cortes, C6 Ada Alum [she/her] Software Development Engineer, Zillow HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN YOU WERE ADMITTED INTO ADA?   I was in disbelief! I was about to teach a class and it just felt unreal, like listening to someone talking when you’re underwater. …

As the Ada team plans for the year ahead, we made the decision to start fresh with a clean build. We wanted to invest the time to more clearly define who we are as a team, what we expect of one another and what our Adies and community partners can expect from us. The entire Ada staff worked together to come up with the foundation for what has become our “Ada SECRETS” A small cross functional team from student services…

Welcome to the Ada Developers Community! Tell us what drew you to serve on the Ada advisory board? I am passionate about providing education for young people, especially underrepresented students. My first job out of college was in software development, but while I liked the work and was good at it, it didn’t feel like I fit in or belonged, and I certainly wasn’t supported by my managers. I was able to use my computer programmer skills — data management…

Ada Developers Academy Interview featuring new advisory board member  Dr. Lisa Chin Welcome to the Ada Developers Community! What was it about Ada that drew you to the board? I am pleased to say that I have known about Ada from even before the program launched.  Scott Case, one of Ada’s founders, reached out for guidance and advice when I was serving as the  Founding Executive Director at Year Up Puget Sound. We talked about career training and professional development programs…

by Dan Roberts, Lead Instructor Not one of them is like another. Don’t ask us why. Go ask your mother. – Dr. Seuss Think back to when you were learning your first object-oriented programming language. If you learned to program in the last 15 years, there’s a good chance that was your first language, period. You probably started off with simple concepts like conditionals and loops, moved on to methods, and then to classes. And then at some point your…