Stanley started applying to dozens of hackathons after a summer spark of self-taught web development before going into his freshman year of college. With little idea of what he had gotten himself into, he attended SDHacks thinking it was simply a competition for experienced programmers. After going, his perspective completely changed and he realized how inviting the community of mentors and hackers was. The caffeine and adrenaline fueled the most riveting 36 hours of his life. The sheer collaboration in figuring out how Git worked was filled with a mix of productivity and laughs. And by a miracle, all of them with bloodshot eyes made something. It was the strongest feeling of euphoria Stanley has ever had.
In a little over a year and twelve hackathons later, he has learned about a wide breadth of technologies and leadership skills that have propelled him into the life of a hacker. Whether it be mentors staying up with him at 3 AM to debug his Flexbox issues or his team ordering boba with 12 hours left in the hackathon, there have been so many incredible memories that he will never forget.
Stanley says, “The sheer amount of technologies and soft skills I’ve gained at hackathons is incomparable to any textbook I’ve ever read.” From creating simple static HTML pages to creating React applications, RESTful APIs, and web scrapers, this combination of skills and projects have given Stanley plenty to talk with recruiters and potential employers. The leadership skills he’s learned at hackathons have also translated into real-life project management as he helps teams with Kanban boards, bi-weekly standups, and daily code reviews. Stanley also has enjoyed mentoring hackers at various hackathons and giving back to this community. He is proud of his Hackathon Handbook that he published on Medium to help first-timers have the best experience possible at their first event.
His favorite project he’s ever worked on at a hackathon is Delivrr. Delivrr is the Uber for package delivery; just like how you can request a driver in seconds, you can request a courier to deliver your package to the other side of town in a fraction of time compared to a standard delivery service. In less than 7 months, a package delivery project at HackSC transformed from a mix of spaghetti code and documentation into a startup that has been accepted to two startup incubators at UC San Diego. Currently, they are rebranding to Wistly, and starting recruitment back up in 2020. They also hired an intern during their summer incubator and ultimately transformed the crazy idea they came up with on a bus into something they are still working on to this day.
Quick Facts
Stanley started applying to dozens of hackathons after a summer spark of self-taught web development before going into his freshman year of college. With little idea of what he had gotten himself into, he attended SDHacks thinking it was simply a competition for experienced programmers. After going, his perspective completely changed and he realized how inviting the community of mentors and hackers was. The caffeine and adrenaline fueled the most riveting 36 hours of his life. The sheer collaboration in figuring out how Git worked was filled with a mix of productivity and laughs. And by a miracle, all of them with bloodshot eyes made something. It was the strongest feeling of euphoria Stanley has ever had.
In a little over a year and twelve hackathons later, he has learned about a wide breadth of technologies and leadership skills that have propelled him into the life of a hacker. Whether it be mentors staying up with him at 3 AM to debug his Flexbox issues or his team ordering boba with 12 hours left in the hackathon, there have been so many incredible memories that he will never forget.
Stanley says, “The sheer amount of technologies and soft skills I’ve gained at hackathons is incomparable to any textbook I’ve ever read.” From creating simple static HTML pages to creating React applications, RESTful APIs, and web scrapers, this combination of skills and projects have given Stanley plenty to talk with recruiters and potential employers. The leadership skills he’s learned at hackathons have also translated into real-life project management as he helps teams with Kanban boards, bi-weekly standups, and daily code reviews. Stanley also has enjoyed mentoring hackers at various hackathons and giving back to this community. He is proud of his Hackathon Handbook that he published on Medium to help first-timers have the best experience possible at their first event.
His favorite project he’s ever worked on at a hackathon is Delivrr. Delivrr is the Uber for package delivery; just like how you can request a driver in seconds, you can request a courier to deliver your package to the other side of town in a fraction of time compared to a standard delivery service. In less than 7 months, a package delivery project at HackSC transformed from a mix of spaghetti code and documentation into a startup that has been accepted to two startup incubators at UC San Diego. Currently, they are rebranding to Wistly, and starting recruitment back up in 2020. They also hired an intern during their summer incubator and ultimately transformed the crazy idea they came up with on a bus into something they are still working on to this day.
