On December 9, 57 students celebrated their completion of Vanderbilt University boot camps in coding and data analytics. The Trilogy-powered boot camps are a partnership between Vanderbilt’s Owen School of Management and its School of Engineering.
The ceremony covered classes that have graduated since July: 32 students from coding and 25 from data analytics.
Certificates of completion were presented to the students by the sponsoring schools’ deans: Philippe Fauchet from the School of Engineering and M. Eric Johnson from Owen School of Management.
Paula Varney, associate director of online educational programs at Owen, gave opening remarks, as did the two deans. Other speakers included Alec Down, instructor for the coding boot camp (and himself a graduate of a Trilogy-powered coding boot camp) and Simon Kingaby, instructor for the data boot camp.
One Vanderbilt boot camp participant, Terrence Mahnken, recently reflected on his boot camp experience and offered bits of advice for others who are considering a similar path.
“If you are considering getting into software development, I would encourage you to weigh all your options, but here are the big three: traditional computer science degree, coding boot camp and free resources (tutorials),” Mahnken said.
“I’m a fan of the boot camp option. No time is wasted,” he said. “When not covering specific languages or building applications, you are learning practical concepts like algorithms and object-oriented design that you will be able to bring with you into the workplace.
“Boot camp programs seem to be a growing “industry” so make sure to research what the program entails. In addition to the coding curriculum, the Vanderbilt Boot Camp provides career services that include career material reviews, one-on-one biweekly career mentoring, tailored job lists from company partners and a vast library of curated career materials,” Mahnken said.
