Victoria Da Rosa, 20
Victoria Da Rosa: The Community‑First Coder Who Powers Hackathons on Caffeine and Kindness
Victoria Da Rosa discovered programming during lockdown, teaching herself Python “because the internet looked more interesting if I could bend it to my will.” That experiment changed everything. In January 2021 she stepped nervously into Hack the North with little more than HTML, CSS and curiosity. “I went in with a basic understanding of HTML and CSS but came out with a working prototype, three new friends and a newfound sense of confidence,” she recalls.
Fast‑forward four years and Victoria is an unmistakable force on the North American hacker circuit. She has attended, mentored, judged or led workshops at more than twenty Major League Hacking events, gliding from midnight debugging sessions to daylight keynote slots with equal enthusiasm. “Technology gave me a toolkit; the hacker community gave me a direction,” she says, and that direction points straight toward helping others. First‑time hackers know her as the calm voice who breaks big problems into bite‑sized wins. Organizers know her as the judge who finds the gem in every demo and the workshop host whose Git and web‑dev tutorials fill up minutes after registration opens.
At the University of Waterloo, Victoria pairs a Computer Engineering degree with relentless community service. She has served every term since Winter 2023 as an Engineering Ambassador, guiding campus tours and answering wide‑eyed questions from future students. Inside the Engineering Society she spearheaded Women in Engineering initiatives, including a kit‑making drive for a local women’s shelter, and later ran term parties that balanced tight budgets with big laughs. Her secret? Spreadsheet precision, a whiteboard full of contingency plans and, occasionally, a good coffee and donut.
Online, she is a volunteer leader in Code Café, a Discord community of more than 120,000 developers scattered across time zones. Victoria helps moderate channels, maintains open‑source starter projects, and hosts events and regular coding challenges.
Awards follow naturally. Victoria has collected overall wins, best‑in‑track nods, and, perhaps dearest to her, invitations to judge and host workshops at flagship events like Hack the 6ix and local MLH hackathons. Each invitation is a vote of confidence from a community she once watched from the sidelines.
Of course, no Victoria story is complete without a plot twist. During a virtual hackathon she fell asleep after an all‑night sprint, missing an unexpected sponsor call‑back. Her teammates handled the pitch, she woke up mortified—and they still won. “Failure is just a step toward iteration,” she laughs, proving that grace under pressure sometimes looks like a power nap.
Whether she is debugging C at 2 a.m. or coaxing shy newcomers onto a demo stage, Victoria Da Rosa keeps one goal in focus: make tech feel like home. “My mission is to demystify tech for anyone who feels like an outsider,” she says. So far, 120,000 community members, countless first‑time hackers, and teams of hackathon organizers agree she is succeeding.
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Victoria Da Rosa, 20
Victoria Da Rosa: The Community‑First Coder Who Powers Hackathons on Caffeine and Kindness
Victoria Da Rosa discovered programming during lockdown, teaching herself Python “because the internet looked more interesting if I could bend it to my will.” That experiment changed everything. In January 2021 she stepped nervously into Hack the North with little more than HTML, CSS and curiosity. “I went in with a basic understanding of HTML and CSS but came out with a working prototype, three new friends and a newfound sense of confidence,” she recalls.
Fast‑forward four years and Victoria is an unmistakable force on the North American hacker circuit. She has attended, mentored, judged or led workshops at more than twenty Major League Hacking events, gliding from midnight debugging sessions to daylight keynote slots with equal enthusiasm. “Technology gave me a toolkit; the hacker community gave me a direction,” she says, and that direction points straight toward helping others. First‑time hackers know her as the calm voice who breaks big problems into bite‑sized wins. Organizers know her as the judge who finds the gem in every demo and the workshop host whose Git and web‑dev tutorials fill up minutes after registration opens.
At the University of Waterloo, Victoria pairs a Computer Engineering degree with relentless community service. She has served every term since Winter 2023 as an Engineering Ambassador, guiding campus tours and answering wide‑eyed questions from future students. Inside the Engineering Society she spearheaded Women in Engineering initiatives, including a kit‑making drive for a local women’s shelter, and later ran term parties that balanced tight budgets with big laughs. Her secret? Spreadsheet precision, a whiteboard full of contingency plans and, occasionally, a good coffee and donut.
Online, she is a volunteer leader in Code Café, a Discord community of more than 120,000 developers scattered across time zones. Victoria helps moderate channels, maintains open‑source starter projects, and hosts events and regular coding challenges.
Awards follow naturally. Victoria has collected overall wins, best‑in‑track nods, and, perhaps dearest to her, invitations to judge and host workshops at flagship events like Hack the 6ix and local MLH hackathons. Each invitation is a vote of confidence from a community she once watched from the sidelines.
Of course, no Victoria story is complete without a plot twist. During a virtual hackathon she fell asleep after an all‑night sprint, missing an unexpected sponsor call‑back. Her teammates handled the pitch, she woke up mortified—and they still won. “Failure is just a step toward iteration,” she laughs, proving that grace under pressure sometimes looks like a power nap.
Whether she is debugging C at 2 a.m. or coaxing shy newcomers onto a demo stage, Victoria Da Rosa keeps one goal in focus: make tech feel like home. “My mission is to demystify tech for anyone who feels like an outsider,” she says. So far, 120,000 community members, countless first‑time hackers, and teams of hackathon organizers agree she is succeeding.
