“Grow with Google Challenge” Scholarship – Intro

I got an email the other day from Udacity. It seems as I am one of the 15,000 recipients of the “Grow with Google Challenge”, scholarship for Front-End Web Development. I am excited to get started on this course and I am going to post weekly updates on my progress.

First of all, this award came as a complete surprise to me. I had filled out the application months ago and totally forgot about it. I don’t even remember what I wrote in my application. Definitely a pleasant surprise.

Udacity?

If you have never heard of Udacity, you should definitely check out their site. https://www.udacity.com/
Udacity has tons of courses available for FREE. Their catalog is always growing and includes web development, Android development, iOS development, and so much more.
Udacity also offers “Nano Degrees”. A Nano Degree is basically a certification by Udacity that you have completed their program. There are real instructors checking each student’s work to verify that the student has indeed completed and understand the content. The Nano Degrees are a structured set of courses and projects that are bundled together. You will get real feedback and help from Udacity instructors.

Grow with Google Challenge

Here is what I know about the “Grow with Google Challenge” that all the scholarship winners got access to.

• 3-month challenge course ends in April
• Offered as a Front-End Web Developer or Android Developer course
• Thousands applied, 15,000 were accepted for each program
• The top 1,500 students from each program will be awarded the 6-month course

Since I was awarded the Front-End Web Development course, I have access to classes and will need to complete projects related to web development. The courses include HTML, CSS, javascript, and jQuery. There are three projects; Mockup to Article, Animal Trading Cards and, Pixel Art Maker. Participation in the forums and/or the Slack channel is encouraged and probably play into who is chosen for the 6-month course award.

Make sure to follow me to see updates on my progress with this course. Let’s see if I can land one of the 1,500 spots for the 6 months course.

See what I do in Week 1 of the Udacity Grow with Google Challenge
See what I do in Week 2 of the Udacity Grow with Google Challenge