Foundations … Junior … Review … Senior … Where Did The Time Go?

Illustration by Emi Hensley via FullStack Academy Blog.

Life as a student at Fullstack Academy can be divided into three main sections: Foundations, Junior Phase, and Senior Phase.

Foundations is a four-week course intended to ensure that all students start the immersive part of the program on similar footing. Traditionally the course is done online, but our cohort did Foundations on-campus, which gave us extra access to instructors and other resources to ensure our success. Foundations is also when I started this blog, hoping to share some insights. But alas, there was always more coding to do and more to learn, so blogging fell by the wayside.

Junior Phase is when the fun really starts and we get to learn some new technologies. Over the course of six weeks, I learned to make a server with Express, create databases in PostgreSQL (and link them to my JavaScript using Sequelize). I learned the basics of creating a single-page application (including some design fun) and how to build, update, and modularize an app using React. I even suffered through Redux and React-Redux (there, I said it, I don’t like Redux … but I am focusing on learning more and using it when I feel it can help my app). With so much to learn, it was no wonder I had no time to blog!

Review week is our “week off” between phases, where we get a chance to review everything we’ve learned in Junior Phase. Sounds like a perfect time to blog, right? Apparently not … reviewing some difficult concepts while at the same time trying to relax and catch up on sleep (and some TV shows…) takes up a lot of time!

And that brings us to now … Senior Phase. Senior phase is our project phase, where we apply all of our newly acquired knowledge to creating awesome projects. This week we’re working on a shopping site, and I’m excited to see how it helps bring all of my knowledge together. I love those ‘ah-ha!’ moments that you can only get while working on a project, and I’m excited to share those moments (and what I learn from them) with the world.

Happy coding!