Meet Women Who Code Scholarship Winner Tracy Holmes

Flatiron School recently partnered with Women Who Code to offer a full scholarship to their Online Web Developer Program. Today, we’re excited to announce the winner: Tracy Holmes.

Tracy’s busy getting ready for the first day of the program, but she was nice enough to take a few minutes to chat with us about her background, what led her to programming, and Women Who Code.

What career were you pursuing prior to programming?

I was a Systems Administrator for about four years working primarily in a Windows environment. After I took an Onboarding Engineer position here in Austin, I focused more on Client Success and Project Management.

How did you discover coding? What made you realize a coding bootcamp would be the right move for you?

I took C++ and VB.NET when I was in college. I knew then it was something I wanted to do, but I decided to hold off and “get certifications.” Well, that took forever!

I moved back to Austin in 2014, and soon after became involved in Women Who Code. That lit a proverbial fire, and I soon tried to learn All the Things (:smile:). I love to learn, but it proved to be a gift and a curse. I could not focus on just one thing! Two really great friends of mine decided to help me narrow down things I like. So, I ended up self-teaching a bit and attended a 1-month prep course at MakerSquare which solidified things a bit.

I found I do best with a bit of structure, so attending a bootcamp was a natural choice!

How did you find Women Who Code and what has it meant to you?

Let me tell you: had I not found Women Who Code, I might have gone a bit crazy. There weren’t many women and STEM-oriented things around me in my hometown nor here that I was aware of. Someone told me about Meetup and I decided to sign up for an account. After entering my interests, WWC-Austin popped up on the list.

After the first event, I volunteered for everything. And I was a 40-minute drive away! It was wonderful. I went from being the super volunteer to a member of the leadership team! We really do provide a great outlet for women to just… be themselves. I currently co-host a “Ruby Tuesday” meetup for all of the Ruby-istas out there, and I honestly consider them family.
READ Why Learn Ruby & JavaScript? Three Takeaways from our Webinar

How are you preparing for your first day of Flatiron School’s Online Web Developer Program? What are you most looking forward to?

I am doing two things: (1) Updating my Chromebook with a new SSD and installing Linux; and (2) Working all the way through the Flatiron Introduction to Ruby course so I’ll be nice and ready to tackle the Full Stack program!

What do you plan to do with your new coding skills once you finish?

I would love to find a career as a Full Stack developer. I also would like to start my own business. There is an organization I am a member of that I have big plans for!

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Tracy Holmes on LinkedIn