Loren Wang and I were Opportunity Scholars at the 2015 RubyConf in San Antonio, Texas last week. It was four days of meeting incredible and inspiring programmers within the community!
Fellow scholar Shana Moore authored several blog posts about her day-by-day experiences at RubyConf and the scholarship application process, if you’re interested in becoming a scholar next year! Bella Woo also chronicled her experiences, which include meeting other scholars via Twitter to make lodging arrangements.
If you weren’t able to attend this year, all of the keynotes and conference sessions were recorded by Confreaks and released for free online. Also, if you’d like to see a collection of articles and books I learned about during RubyConf, check out the hashtag #RubyConfReadingList
Mahalo to everyone who helped get me out to RubyConf this year!
In San Antonio at the RubyConf Opportunity Scholars meetup! https://t.co/ebxrMMh0EP pic.twitter.com/SIHRUsaYum
— ǝuıɐɹo˥ (@lorainekv) November 15, 2015
Saying hi to @tenderlove with @kwugirl before his talk, Inside Ruby’s VM. #rubyconf pic.twitter.com/xy7ns9n10h — ǝuıɐɹo˥ (@lorainekv) November 15, 2015
Whoooo! @wangg131 and I ran into @sandimetz at #rubyconf and let her know we’ve read her book with @adaacademy pic.twitter.com/Ba0Bcgg6wU
— ǝuıɐɹo˥ (@lorainekv) November 15, 2015
Saw @yukihiro_matz at #rubyconf w/ @lorainekv pic.twitter.com/VK840zm60u — Loren Wang (@wangg131) November 16, 2015
Uhhhh so I just last minute signed up for a lightning talk on this stage yay. #rubyconf pic.twitter.com/878z6f6n8k
— ǝuıɐɹo˥ (@lorainekv) November 16, 2015
.@lorainekv sharing her @adaacademy capstone (inspired by @lizuselton) in a⚡️talk @rubyconf! ?? pic.twitter.com/gT5ztG3RV0 — Hsing-Hui Hsu (@SoManyHs) November 17, 2015
Scholar and guide selfie! Shout out to the awesome @lorainekv. Had a great #rubyconf with ya
pic.twitter.com/nlrpp6n18E
— Walter Latimer (@walterlatimer) November 17, 2015
My sharply-dressed, knowledgeable, and kind guide was Walter Latimer, who was also filming kickass interviews with Ruby rock stars for Udacity.
Here’s the footage from my lightning talk. While it was a scary experience, I’m ultimately very glad that I spoke about Book Duets because it gave me a chance to connect with other devs who also think about tech in creative fields. Whenever I do something public-speaking-related, I try to think about the brainspace I get into while at Rain City Slam events in Seattle. They’re an amazing group of poets I look up to, and I try to channel them whenever I make a split-second decision to clamber onto a stage.