AthenaHacks 2017 Reflections: Marsela Sulku

Meet Marsela! Marsela’s a rising junior at the University of Southern California. She worked on organizing AthenaHacks as a part of the Design team and next year will be on the Logistics team! She’s spending the summer as a software engineering intern at Google, befriending cute puppies on public transportation, and living life.

What motivated you to work on AthenaHacks?

We need more women in technology, and this is an amazing way to help promote that. I really wanted to foster an environment where girls — regardless of experience level — felt comfortable enough to work on something they find fun because I never found that at any hackathon I’ve attended.

What was your favorite part of AthenaHacks?

My favorite part of AthenaHacks was the project expo. I talked to so many hackers, and for most of them, they didn’t have any prior experience with the technologies they hacked with at AthenaHacks but were still able to create great projects! What made it *really* special was how excited all the hackers were that they made something and how much interest they all expressed at attending other hackathons and continuing to grow their skills. It was amazing!

What advice do you have for people that want to attend their first hackathon?

Just do it! It’s scary, but there’s so many resources, and if you make use of them, you will quickly find your footing and start hacking away! At AthenaHacks, we have workshops with industry professionals that are geared towards beginners, “hackpacks” which are step-by-step tutorials to help you create your first hack, and endless support from mentors and organizers :)

What advice do you have for people just starting out in tech?

Don’t be intimidated by those people who look like they have it all together or those people who have been coding since they were like 2. When you start doesn’t matter — all that matters is what you do with the skills that you have. So start working on your own projects by applying the tech you learn to stuff you enjoy doing. :)