Athennian and InceptionU award bursaries to C9 learners

Thanks to a generous financial gift from Shane Fast with Athennian, InceptionU Educational Foundation recently awarded two of our Cohort 9 learners with a $1,000 bursary each. The intent behind this bursary is to financially contribute to the learning of up-and-coming top tech talent and spotlight the journey they have pursued over the past few months. 

The InceptionU Evolve Full Stack Developer Cohort 9 recipients of the inaugural Sharpen Your Pencil, Amplify Your Impact Bursary are Maggie Chew and Tosin Kasaba, pictured here with Athennian co-founder Shane Fast.

Both Maggie and Tosin have demonstrated, through their application and personal interview, that they are diligent builders, focused creatives and ambitious learners. This aligns with the values sought out by Athennian when looking to collaborate with new developers in the tech ecosystem. 

We recently sat down with Shane to learn more about the bursary, Athennian and what his company is looking for when recruiting new tech talent. 

Q: Why did you want to invest in this bursary?

Shane: I like to think of this as a win-win-win situation for the students, Athennian, and myself:

For the students, the monetary reward is certainly the most tangible benefit, but also a chance for early exposure to the tech industry in their education. One thing I frequently find from grads entering into the industry from “direct to industry” programs is apprehension despite the hard work they’ve put into shaping their mind sets and building their skills. If we can add to the recipient’s confidence building, I’d like to think that will help them after their education.

For Athennian: I’d say that it is the exposure students get to Athennian’s main core values and culture. The values of Diligent Builders, Focused Creatives, Ambitious Learners has always been our krabby patty secret formula and spreading those values out to the world has always been a goal of our team. By getting in front of many students, I think this is an effective way to spread our culture early in each learner’s career.

For myself, I’ve been greatly rewarded in my career and wanted to do something a bit “plus ultra”. This was something I didn’t really see happening in our ecosystem and thought “let’s try it and see what happens. Maybe people will think this is neat.”

Q: Why did you choose to partner with InceptionU?

Shane: On a personal level, I have worked closely with InceptionU folks in the past and witnessed the growth of the organization. From what I’ve seen their team is dedicated, energetic, and highly engaged in the community. So the selection came naturally when the desire came to mind to build this partnership.

Q: What type of people is Athennian looking for?

Ultimately, the type of people who are poised to make a large impact. The types of people who can figure out how to navigate a tricky project and then figure out the next step to take, but also know how to continually hone their skills and carefully weigh the pros and cons of a solution. The values are intended to be a bit paradoxical when you drill into them. For example, being “Focused” while being “Creative” is a fine line to walk, and sometimes you might need to be more focused while at other times a more creative approach is required. In other words, someone with a nice full toolbox, but also knows which tool is most appropriate to use at a given time.

Q: Would you like to see other local companies/employers contributing to these types of initiatives?

It depends. Would it benefit the students? Probably, as long as they didn’t have to fill out too many applications. As a recruitment strategy, I’d like to think it changes the meta, behooving more companies to participate, but if it becomes oversaturated then maybe it would have diminishing returns. Who knows for sure, but perhaps it will get teams to think a bit differently about their culture. As it looks to me, if a company has a culture worth having, then it is a culture worth spreading.

Q: Will the recipients be considered/invited to interview for positions at Athennian?

I always want to manage expectations accordingly to never leave a bad taste from any interaction. To leave a positive impression and to leave the door open to possibilities.

There is always room for that special someone if we happen to cross paths, but I don’t want to make any promises I can’t keep. However, I do encourage people to follow our team’s blog, Athennian-dev-life (https://medium.com/athennian-dev-life) and keep an eye on our careers page (https://www.athennian.com/careers) for updates and current open positions.

Thank you, Shane, for sitting down with us and coordinating the bursary project for our learners.