Meet the Mentors – Meet Amandine 29th June, 2016 Amandine is one of our newest mentors. A full-stack web developer, she loves coding, fixing problems and is hugely enthusiastic about what CoderDojo does. Amandine will shortly be setting up a new Dojo in Edinburgh – look out for it! If you only had three words to describe you, what would they be? Adventurous – I am always on the lookout for a new adventure, whether that be travels or new challenges to take on! Curious – I love to learn about different cultures and meet all sorts of people. Troubleshooter – I always find myself trying (and usually succeeding) to fix things… mechanical things… difficult situations… coding problems… Do you work with technology? What do you do? I do! I am a full-stack web developer, so I work both with front-end and back-end technologies (mainly within a LAMP environment) for a web design and development company based in Leith, Edinburgh, by the Shore. What made you start coding? I must have started when I was about maybe 14 years old at the time… it was early ages of the internet back then in the 2000s and I was just drawn to it and started building all kinds of websites with the help of the web and a couple of geek friends when stuck. I was using HTML, CSS, PHP scripts such as PHPBB and Flash for banners and animations mostly. What do you like about coding? I love that since technology constantly evolves there is always something new to learn. Fixing bugs or making something work that you had no clue about can be exciting and I also find it really rewarding when a site goes live and you see the results of your work out in the open for the world to see! Coding’s a boys’ thing, isn’t it? I’ve never actually seen it that way… but then I was always more drawn to men than women in both my friendships and work environments, which have always been boy-centred within my previous careers. I guess it is somehow but I am not sure why and girls should definitely not be afraid to try their hands at it and see how well they can do themselves! Go girls! What’s the one tech you couldn’t live without? I would probably have to say the internet in general? Or if you are materialistic speaking, then my laptop! I am almost 24/7 online on my laptop, whether that is for work, just browsing sites or streaming TV shows! Are there enough cat videos on Youtube? Definitely! I am more of a dog person myself you see… 🙂 A little bird has told us you’re starting a new CoderDojo in Edinburgh. Can you tell us about it? Yes! I am currently on the lookout for the right venue to hold a regular Dojo and once all the technological, mentoring and general hosting obstacles are overcome it will be announced so keep an eye on here! Also, if you are interested in becoming a mentor at it, do get in touch. To read about Amadine’s adventures with the BBC micro:bit at the Popup Family CoderDojo click here.