An experience of a lifetime…WWDC18 Scholarship
It was 2 years back when I got a mail from Apple with the subject “You’ve won a WWDC18 Scholarship”. I was ecstatic to read the mail because it was my first attempt and I got selected for one of the biggest events of Apple. Little did I know, this experience of 7 days was going to change my life forever.
I got a chance to not only witness the event live but meet Tim Cook in Person. It was like a dream come true. I remember how nervous I was when I saw him standing near me and talking to me about my submission.
Not only did I meet Tim but so many amazing Apple engineers and one of my favorites, Esther Hare. One of the most amazing sessions that I attended during that week was my morning session with all the women developers, Women@WWDC. The stories that all the women shared were so inspiring that I was amazed to see how women have led their footprints in tech today. Also, we were fortunate enough to visit the Steve Jobs Theatre. We had a great welcome session by the Apple team at Apple Park.
My Submission: “Let’s Shapify”
I submitted my Playground, “Let’s Shapify” as part of the Swift Student Challenge. Let’s Shapify was primarily built for my nephew, Kartik, and then brought myriad of laurels to me. Like many other kids, Kartik suffered from a problem of not able to differentiate between the same and different. He had a tough time dealing with shapes, colors, alphabets, and numbers at his pre-school. But, after constantly playing the game, Let’s Shapify, we could notice a significant change in Kartik’s observational and categorization skills. Not only, he could judge the shapes and colors well but he enjoyed the sounds the shapes produced every time he won. Seeing that big smile on his face proved to be a cherry on the cake.
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Youtube: https://youtu.be/INsfbSmFpyA
But it did not just stop here. I had so many interactive interviews with the Apple team. They made us feel so comfortable and welcoming. Their energy was next level. Now, what happened next was really huge…I got fortunate to be featured in the news and on tech pages.
For this, I am more than thankful to the Apple PR Team, both India and the USA, for highlighting me during my WWDC days. They had been very supportive throughout the week. They were one of the biggest reasons how people came to know about me then. Without a doubt, I can say that the Apple PR Team played a significant role in making my experience at WWDC magnificent.
My takeaway from WWDC
WWDC scholarship paved the way for me to finally be able to better myself, have a career that I am proud of today, and inspire many other students to participate in the scholarship. It feels great when students message me on LinkedIn, telling me that I am their inspiration for why they chose to participate in the scholarship. I have always wanted to be someone’s inspiration, someone who would look up to me, and honestly, this was the best way to inspire not just one or two, but so many students who are creative and talented. Someone was my inspiration when I applied for WWDC scholarship during my last semester of Post Graduation and today, I feel blessed to be someone else’s inspiration.
It is that time of the year again…The Keynote. With the start of the WWDC 2020, I have decided to make some contribution to the community by sharing my Swift knowledge in the form of small articles on Medium because I feel, by sharing knowledge, I would be able to learn and shape myself in a better way. It would be really great to have suggestions and corrections/comments on the same.
Let’s learn together! let’s learn together!
