Adam Drummond, 19
If you've been to an MLH digital event, you probably know Adam from his discord handle: Adam Drummond 🇮🇲. Adam’s love for technology began in the spring of 2014, when he was first introduced to it through the Isle of Man Code Club. Through the club, Adam learned to program in Scratch, Python, HTML/CSS, PHP, Java and JavaScript, and even taught a course himself in Visual Basic. The club empowered Adam and hundreds of other students to learn by doing. This steadily increased his love for technology until one day, seven years later, he became a team leader for a competition that he had competed in for six years.
Adam’s Local Hack Day, and indeed MLH, journey began in January of 2021. The Isle of Man had just entered a second lockdown after being COVID-free for six months. As a result, he was looking for a way to fill his time. Randomly, he received an MLH Hacker Newsletter suggesting he "Ring In The New Year with Local Hack Day: Build.” In Adam’s words, he “was intrigued.” He was one of the most invested hackers at LHD: Build 2021 (now Global Hack Week: Build), coming second by just two points, and was “quite possibly the most active hacker in the Discord server.” Adam took part in numerous events hosted by MLH after that, won a few prizes, and was thoroughly addicted.
Local Hack Day: Share came along, and Adam created the guild MELONsquad, competing directly with Jacklyn Biggin’s BLAHAJgang. Eventually, the two communities merged after “an all-out melon vs. blahaj emoji [battle].” What started as a Global Hack Week guild blossomed into a larger, long-term group with a Discord. The BLAHAJgang community’s focus is on how they can make the experience of being in technology as fun as possible, exemplified by how they turned an IKEA shark into a meme and a movement. BLAHAJgang encourages teamwork and participation in hackathons and events like MLH Global Hack Week.
As an islander, Adam knows that working on the Isle of Man can sometimes be as difficult as it is amazing. Community events can be few and far between. As a member of Code Club, Adam looks to change this by organizing events and bringing people together. Adam is attempting to use his positions in MLH and BLAHAJgang to be an instrumental part of his local community. He still attends MLH events year round, and more recently, has been observing how these events run in hopes of one day running hackathons on-island as part of the Code Club. To this day, Adam loves to experiment with new technologies and ultimately have a fun time, while also empowering people of all ages to use digital skills and equipment to enrich their lives. He promotes this through Code Club by doing everything “[from] using 3D printers, to programming on laptops, to creating electronics circuits that have a real purpose.”
From leading BLAHAJgang and organizing events, to hosting sessions at the Isle of Man Code Club, to empowering individuals and helping them learn, Adam’s technology journey has certainly been one for the books.
Quick Facts
Adam Drummond, 19
If you've been to an MLH digital event, you probably know Adam from his discord handle: Adam Drummond 🇮🇲. Adam’s love for technology began in the spring of 2014, when he was first introduced to it through the Isle of Man Code Club. Through the club, Adam learned to program in Scratch, Python, HTML/CSS, PHP, Java and JavaScript, and even taught a course himself in Visual Basic. The club empowered Adam and hundreds of other students to learn by doing. This steadily increased his love for technology until one day, seven years later, he became a team leader for a competition that he had competed in for six years.
Adam’s Local Hack Day, and indeed MLH, journey began in January of 2021. The Isle of Man had just entered a second lockdown after being COVID-free for six months. As a result, he was looking for a way to fill his time. Randomly, he received an MLH Hacker Newsletter suggesting he "Ring In The New Year with Local Hack Day: Build.” In Adam’s words, he “was intrigued.” He was one of the most invested hackers at LHD: Build 2021 (now Global Hack Week: Build), coming second by just two points, and was “quite possibly the most active hacker in the Discord server.” Adam took part in numerous events hosted by MLH after that, won a few prizes, and was thoroughly addicted.
Local Hack Day: Share came along, and Adam created the guild MELONsquad, competing directly with Jacklyn Biggin’s BLAHAJgang. Eventually, the two communities merged after “an all-out melon vs. blahaj emoji [battle].” What started as a Global Hack Week guild blossomed into a larger, long-term group with a Discord. The BLAHAJgang community’s focus is on how they can make the experience of being in technology as fun as possible, exemplified by how they turned an IKEA shark into a meme and a movement. BLAHAJgang encourages teamwork and participation in hackathons and events like MLH Global Hack Week.
As an islander, Adam knows that working on the Isle of Man can sometimes be as difficult as it is amazing. Community events can be few and far between. As a member of Code Club, Adam looks to change this by organizing events and bringing people together. Adam is attempting to use his positions in MLH and BLAHAJgang to be an instrumental part of his local community. He still attends MLH events year round, and more recently, has been observing how these events run in hopes of one day running hackathons on-island as part of the Code Club. To this day, Adam loves to experiment with new technologies and ultimately have a fun time, while also empowering people of all ages to use digital skills and equipment to enrich their lives. He promotes this through Code Club by doing everything “[from] using 3D printers, to programming on laptops, to creating electronics circuits that have a real purpose.”
From leading BLAHAJgang and organizing events, to hosting sessions at the Isle of Man Code Club, to empowering individuals and helping them learn, Adam’s technology journey has certainly been one for the books.
Quick Facts
