Next up in my series of Q&As with inspirational mentors and community builders in the technology industry, we’ll hear from Ashwin Kumar Uppala.

Ashwin is one of the honorees of the Twilio Developer Searchlight project, which celebrates mentors who are uplifting developers in 2022 through community, mentorship, or code. Handpicked by an esteemed panel of expert judges, these honorees are recognized for playing a pivotal role in shaping developer careers in a variety of ways.

Ashwin is a Coach and Event Representative at Major League Hacking, supporting the future generation of hackers. His experience in the developer community has helped him understand what student hackers need to grow their careers and inspired him to “be the change” for those most in need of resources and guidance.

Who Are You, Where Are You Based, and What Are You Working On Right Now?

I am a final year engineering student from the Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad, India.

I am currently working as an MLH Coach and setting up a self-sustaining open-source student-run community (called Hackerabad) in my region to help passionate students get started with technology and open-source opportunities which weren’t available in my local community before.

Congratulations on being selected as a Twilio Developer Searchlight honoree. What does being a mentor or community builder mean to you?

I strongly believe in “learning in public”. Community builders are the ones who help create more leaders in the community. When I started with hackathons, I was the only one in my community to have competed in them. This is when I started Hackerabad: to set up a structure for creating more student leaders in my community.

A mentor to me is a person who I aim to be like. It could range from a specific skill to a personality, hence why I have multiple mentors. Being a mentor myself, I make sure I am constantly taking feedback from the mentees as well – this allows me to maintain a broad perspective and two-way approach to mentorship.

You are passionate about ushering in the next generation of hackers, specifically working with people of underrepresented groups - tell me more about how you foster an inclusive community.

I have observed that an inclusive team tends to outperform any other type of team in creativity, collaboration and execution of challenging tasks. In order to encourage an inclusive community, I make sure that the team is diverse right from the top.

On one of my current teams, there is both a male and female co-founder; this duo ensures the community has more than one lead for accountability. The team also includes people from different backgrounds, age groups, and gender identities. A diverse team makes an impact while brainstorming target audiences for an event/workshop; it provides once hesitant individuals with the confidence to approach our team leads. Also, giving a voice to folks from various backgrounds and experiences increases the overall satisfaction of our team members.

I commit to the use of inclusive language and pronouns within communities and discourage using academic seniority terms during community conversations, so students feel welcomed, irrespective of their experience and backgrounds.

What’s your best advice for aspiring or early-in-career developers?

My advice:

• Learn-in-public: Ask questions in group channels over private DMs.
• Learn-by-doing: Build as you learn new technology.
• Share-what-you-learnt: Write blogs, record a video or just teach a friend.
• Come for the swag; stay for the community.

Just for fun: what was your first computer or your most memorable piece of tech?

Sony Xperia M was my first phone and also turned out to be my gateway to tech. When aiming to upgrade it from Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean) to 4.4 (KitKat), I messed up my phone several times in the process. I had to experiment with new ways and leverage various resources from Google and tech blogs to make sure I didn’t lose my phone. In fact, I accidentally updated it to a custom ROM Android 5.0!! Having to fix my first phone helped me realize that curiosity and constant experimentation can yield amazing results.

Thank you, Ashwin, for taking the time to share your story with us. Stay tuned to learn more about the honorees in our series of interviews. You can also read more about the honorees in this Insider article, which unpacks how they’re each shaping a better future for developers.