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This 21-Year-Old Programmer Taught Herself To Code & Launched 2 Startups

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This 21-Year-Old Programmer Taught Herself To Code & Launched 2 Startups
Akshaya Dinesh Spellbound founder

As a computer science major at Stanford, Akshaya Dinesh’s future felt pretty much laid out: “I thought the next step for me was to become a software engineer and get a job in tech,” Akshaya recalls.

Akshaya, 21, grew up in the New Jersey suburbs and learned how to code at her parents’ suggestion the summer before high school. She became a prolific hackathon participant and had her sights set on working for a major tech company like Facebook or Google someday. “I kind of revered the Silicon Valley stereotype,” she says.

In college, Akshaya immersed herself in the tech world and landed coveted internships at Microsoft, Bloomberg, and even a flying car startup. But as she got closer to her goal, something felt missing: “I wasn’t really feeling the impact of my work,” Akshaya says. “I was building a super tiny feature in a huge organization where I couldn’t interact with my users.”

So Akshaya decided to make something of her own. In March 2020, she built Ladder, a networking app for Gen Z professionals who were struggling to find tech jobs and internships during the pandemic. Ladder took off among her peers and, through a startup accelerator, attracted high-profile investors like Tony Xu of Doordash and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian. At 19, Akshaya dropped out of Stanford to pursue startups fulltime.

“Being able to create your own vision and see that come to reality is something that is so rare in the workplace in so many different careers,” Akshaya says. As an Asian American woman occupying a predominantly white male space, she’s had to cope with her share of “small hurdles” and microaggressions as a founder, she says.

Akshaya is already onto her next company, Spellbound, a B2B product that incorporates interactive user experiences embedded inside of the body of emails. “My goal with the company is really to build an extremely successful large business and sort of prove to the world that you don’t need to be a white man to accomplish the same types of success,” she says.

Here, Akshaya shares how she fell in love with coding, how she copes with impostor syndrome, and her advice for developers who have entrepreneurial aspirations, too.

How’d you learn to code?

“The summer between middle school and high school, I just was super bored and had nothing to do. It was my parents who encouraged me to try to learn a new field. They basically were like, ‘Here, try to learn Java. Just pick it up and it’ll be a good skill in your toolkit.’

My parents weren’t developers, but they worked at companies where they saw that programmers were getting so many opportunities. They witnessed that there was clearly a huge demand for programming. I really owe it to them to give me that initial push. At the time, I was super against it: I never wanted to be an engineer; I thought it was not the right role for me. I’m very outspoken, and I wanted to do something where I could interact with people more.

So I unwillingly learned Java and hated it. The first language that I learned after Java was JavaScript, because I realized that Java wasn’t enough for me to actually build anything of use. I wanted to make a website — the very first website I built was a personality quiz. I actually used Codecademy to learn JavaScript for that website.”

Why did you stick with it?

“The reason why I ended up falling in love with computer science was through hackathons. I saw a hackathon sticker on somebody’s laptop, and I googled, What is this hackathon thing? I discovered this crazy world of these 24-hour events where it’s like a fun sleepover, you get to meet totally new people, and just go build a product. It was only until I had started to apply my skills in coding to actually building real-world applications that people could use that I started to see how insanely powerful it was. I became absolutely obsessed.

Throughout my four years of high school, I ended up going into about 45 hackathons, which was a lot of sleepless nights and traveling across the country — even the world. Attending these events all by myself put me very outside of my comfort zone. At most of these hackathons, I was one of very few girls there, so I felt very, very lonely.

If it wasn’t for Codecademy and attending hackathons, I would have quit after day one, because it was just so boring to me at first. Writing if statements and while loops, I was like, This is pointless. Getting to see how cool it is when people build a real-world application is what inspired me to keep going.”

What was it like launching your first company?

“I ended up starting my first company, Ladder, by accident. When the pandemic happened, everybody was sent home from school, and a lot of internships and job opportunities also started to fall away. It started out as just a simple side project meant to help my fellow students get new career opportunities and mentorship. There was so much demand and interest that it turned into a product that could almost resemble a new type of LinkedIn for that demographic.

The hardest step was getting something in the hands of users and getting their feedback. At most of the hackathons where I built all these cool projects, I never got to the point where I was confident enough to actually put it out into the world — they were all just works in progress. I was always worried like, What if they find bugs? Or what if they don’t like it?

It was super intimidating. There was a huge learning curve for me to dive into startups and understand how this entire world works. I had no idea how to raise [venture capital] funding or how to hire someone — I was barely a student myself, because I had only done 1.3 years of college.”

How’d you cope with that impostor syndrome?

“What I realized was that the most successful founders have an insane amount of confidence in themselves, their story, and the product that they’re building. Even if that confidence isn’t yet totally deserved, I think portraying that competence is honestly what gets people excited about your mission.

The female founders in my network — like, friends who I’ve helped fundraise or introduced to my investors — the first thing I tell them is, ‘When you enter a pitch meeting, just assume that you’re also a white male, and you have all the same privileges.’ You can warrant the same ruthless confidence that anybody else has.”

Did people treat you differently as a young woman of color?

“There are small biases and micro-patterns that I notice. At my last company, I had a male co-founder, and sometimes if we didn’t have our titles on LinkedIn, people would reach out to them as a default, or they would assume that I was a non-technical co-founder. There’s always the assumption that I don’t know how to code and I had somebody else that’s helping me on the technical side.

For some reason, when I fundraise for my company — even though it’s a totally normal B2B SaaS company that has nothing to do with women — I tend to only be introduced to the female partners at VC firms. That was a really weird thing for me to encounter, because I’m pretty sure other founders aren’t only getting introduced to a certain demographic of partners.”

What advice would you give someone who wants to build a product and launch a startup like you did?

“The first step to being an entrepreneur is getting validation in your idea. A lot of programmers become very obsessed with making the perfect product, fixing every single bug, and building every single feature. They spend six months building this incredible product, and they launch it only to realize that nobody actually wants to use it because they weren’t solving a real problem. For everything that I’ve worked on, I’ve always tried to validate before I even write a single line of code.

For Ladder, I ran some no-code experiments using existing platforms to try to mimic some of the functionality and see if I could get engagement out of my users. Only once I had seen the really positive signs of success in those early experiments did I then go and write my first line of code and build the real product. Probably the biggest pitfall that programmers turned into entrepreneurs have is they tend to write code a little bit too early.”

Interview has been edited for clarity.

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If you’re not sure where to begin or what to learn next, this is a great place to start. Check out our top coding courses, Skill Paths, and Career Paths.

4 Misconceptions About Working In IT — & What It’s Really Like

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4 Misconceptions About Working In IT — & What It’s Really Like
Misconceptions about working in IT — & what it's really like

If your only reference point for IT is the voice on the end of the help desk that answers your frantic computer questions, that’s understandable — but you might be overlooking a fascinating field full of opportunities for people who want to work in tech.

To put it simply, IT (which stands for “information technology”) is all about “making sure technology is working together,” explains Kofi Friar, Senior IT Manager at Codecademy who oversees the technology, user accounts, and systems for all Codecademy’s internal services.

One pervasive misconception about the IT field is that it’s monotonous or, well, sleepy. Most people don’t realize how broad the IT field is, says Austin Turecek, Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at Flashpoint (who has contributed to Codecademy’s cybersecurity courses). The reality is that there are lots of different roles within IT that extend beyond repairing hardware and software, like cybersecurity, operations, and systems management.

For example, Austin’s job is in deep and dark web intelligence and analysis — meaning he researches malware and tools that threat actors utilize, and then finds ways to mitigate the risks. In other words, Austin tracks down the internet bad guys.

So what’s it really like to work in IT? If you’re intrigued, be sure to check out our Introduction to IT course to learn the basic IT skills and get a taste of the industry. Here, IT professionals dispel some common myths about working in IT and dive into rewarding IT jobs that you may not know exist.

The misconception: You have to be a computer genius to work in IT.

IT professionals aren’t walking computer manuals, despite their extensive knowledge and problem-solving prowess. You don’t have to know everything there is to know about computers to get hired, because a lot of learning takes place on the job. “It helps if you have a good knack for computers and you understand them,” Austin says. “But there’s such a broad and open door to IT.”

Like developers, people in IT often use Google to fill their knowledge gaps. “Being able to research and apply solutions based on what you read online is a talent that is really needed when it comes to IT,” Kofi says. “So analyzing and interpreting information is really important.”

A baseline understanding of how to code is nice to have in IT — but critical thinking skills and the ability to “think like a computer” are just as valuable, Austin says. “One of the biggest things is the ability to pay attention to process, to problem-solve, and to identify issues quickly enough that they don’t become larger issues,” he says.

The misconception: You’re mostly fixing broken hardware.

While responding to individual IT support tickets might fit into an IT professional’s day-to-day life, the “break-fix aspect” is just one part, Austin says. Working in deep and dark web intelligence and analysis, Austin’s days are never quite the same: “Some days, I will sit there and code for 10 hours straight, and that is my day,” he says. “Other days, you’re just reading through reports and documents.”

Surprisingly, there’s a lot of writing in IT, Austin says. You’re often tasked with writing reports, memos, policies, standards, or instructions for diverse audiences. For example, you might need to summarize complicated material for people in C-level or upper management who may only skim a document; and then you also may have to provide in-depth technical explanations for colleagues to follow, he says.

The misconception: Soft skills aren’t necessary in IT.

There’s a stereotype that people who work in IT are quiet, introverted, and maybe even dismissive. Like any field, IT attracts a mix of personalities, including folks who are naturally quiet and those who are energized by being around other people.

In IT, you’re constantly interacting with your customer base, whether that’s a group of software engineers or someone in a nontechnical role who needs troubleshooting guidance. “In my experience, IT is a very community-driven job,” Austin says. “I can’t fix your broken internet if you don’t call me and I don’t talk to you — so it is a very social position.”

Interpersonal skills are super valuable in IT. Kofi affectionately refers to IT as “technical therapy,” because there’s often an emotional component attached to tech problems. For example, you might find yourself consoling someone who can’t access an essential file or talking to someone who’s angry that their kid spilled a drink on their laptop.

Patience and compartmentalization can help handle these difficult scenarios: “It’s so easy to focus your frustrations on something like a computer because it doesn’t talk back,” Kofi says. “People may take that energy to you when they come to the help desk for support — but you’ve got to understand that’s not directed at you.”

The misconception: IT operates mostly behind the scenes.

In some ways, IT can be “hidden,” which only adds to the misconceptions about the field, Austin says. “You have people who are maintaining the aspects of the computers that you don’t necessarily consider,” he says.

It’s true that IT is typically involved in “doing the behind-the-scenes things to help a business operate more smoothly,” Kofi says. However, IT can also have a major influence on a company’s big-picture strategy.

For example, someone in a position like Kofi’s would have to evaluate the status of a company’s internal technology and make decisions to improve processes. That could be anything from upgrading cybersecurity measures to setting up hardware services when companies return to the office. “It’s a lot of project management, which requires an understanding of how our organization works, and who uses what tools and how,” he says. “The strategy side of things really excites me.”

If IT sounds like the right path for you, check out our Introduction to IT course, which will give you an overview of core IT subjects, like operating systems and networks. To go a little deeper into cybersecurity, including how hackers gain access to a system, consider our Skill Path Fundamentals of Cybersecurity. And for even more advice about how to find a job in tech that you’re passionate about, head to our career center.

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Cool Job: I’m A Senior IT Manager For Engineers At Urban Outfitters & Free People

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Cool Job: I’m A Senior IT Manager For Engineers At Urban Outfitters & Free People
Cool Job: Senior IT manager at Urban brands

When most people think about the information technology department, aka “IT,” they usually picture the tech whiz who upgrades your hardware or patiently helps you troubleshoot. (That British sitcom The IT Crowd only reinforced this stereotype.) But IT is a vast field that’s full of opportunities for people who want to work in tech.

Deanna Christy is an IT manager at the fashion portfolio URBN, which includes Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, and Free People. As the senior manager of engineering operations, Deanna’s role at URBN entails strategizing long-term retail e-commerce projects, performing quality assurance testing, and helping developers manage their workflow.

Broadly speaking, IT involves using technology to organize, store, share, and process information. “IT, to me, is the back-end functions and workers that have to make the click-of-a-button work,” Deanna says.

Deanna sort of fell into the retail e-commerce field, but found that her leadership and organizational skills were well-suited for IT. “When I first started out, I used to call myself an investigator,” says Deanna, who’s worked for URBN since 2017. “If there was an issue, I wanted to figure out what it was, what system it was involved in, and how we can fix it.”

URBN campus
URBN’s campus at The Navy Yard in Philadelphia.

Now, Deanna describes her specific role as a “relationship-builder” between developers. “I want to be a developer’s partner and help provide a shield so they can work on what I’m asking them to do,” she says. For example, if a developer needs more time to complete a project or has questions that need answers, she advocates for them and makes it happen without compromising the project’s deadline.

Here’s what it’s like to work in IT at a fashion company like URBN, plus the technical and soft skills you’d need to be a successful IT manager.

What got me interested in the job

“When I got into tech, I thought that I needed to become a developer. Development might make a little bit of money in the long term, but that might not be the best path for your skillset. Deep down, I love organization and I really love building a bond between teams who work on certain systems and being that connector.

Sometimes in tech, people like to work in their own bubbles at their own pace. It really takes a lot of relationship-building, so that individuals know you’re not just pushing them to get an end result — you know how they work, and you know what level they work on. From that partnership, you build this little team to work with other individuals down the line and in other systems. I really found my niche was that I can understand their work levels.

What really intrigued me about the fashion industry is that customers are buying, for example, a T-shirt, and I am worrying about all the functions behind the scenes. That goes from how the website functions, down to our order management system, down to our warehouse shipping system, down to delivering a package on your doorstep. To you, it takes three clicks — but to us, it’s this huge order of operations. I just love that there’s this whole lifecycle of simply ordering a product.”

How I got in the door

“I studied marketing in college — I did not study tech or computer science at all. A family friend knew somebody at David’s Bridal who was looking for an e-commerce systems analyst. All they told me was that they need somebody energetic who they can mold. I was like, Sign me up. That’s what I want.

That was my very first job in the fashion industry, and I wasn’t really sure even what e-commerce meant at the time. They handed me a book, APIs for Dummies, and I was like, What is an API?  [It’s an Application Program Interface.] It was a challenge. I said to my co-worker at the time, ‘You need to sit with me one hour every single day and teach me what a systems analyst does.’ We actually work together now at Urban Outfitters, so I always give him the props that he taught me everything.

URBN campus Philadelphia
URBN’s portfolio of brands includes Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People, BHLDN, Terrain, Menus & Venues, and Nuuly.

Anyone who gets into tech is going to first think: What did I get myself into? Is this the right avenue for me? You can learn through working with other tech teams where your avenue might really be. That’s how I got to where I am now. I started as a systems analyst, which you’ll often see called a ‘business analyst’ or ‘BA.’ I moved into this project management role because I liked overseeing all the functions for one project across multiple teams. From there, project management and program management kind of went hand-in-hand.

Really, what I loved at the end of the day was coordinating across multiple teams, and being the person who says: You’ve got to do this. You have to do that. And once you do it together, I will test each of those individual functions to ensure that the flow works all the way downstream. I want to be the leader across teams to connect it all together.”

What I actually do every day

“There’s a couple of different aspects of what I manage here at Urban Outfitters: We can manage something that’s front-end and customer-facing, like curbside pickup or membership programs where customers can get exclusive discounts at checkout. Another thing is, if we open up a new warehouse, making sure you can get your items quicker from a warehouse source in an area closer to you. But then there’s these projects that are a little more technical, like moving our back-end servers to a cloud functionality.

What I really like is you can be involved in IT without actually coding. You have to understand what each team can do to get your project out the door and how to test it for them. I do a lot of testing myself, [which requires] understanding what they’re developing. How can I test it for them to ensure that there’s no issues?”

Here’s what you need to get started

If you want to learn more about IT, our course Introduction to IT is a great way to get a taste of the field. The beginner-friendly course will cover the basics of how computers work (including the hardware and software you should know and a guide to troubleshooting), plus dive into operating systems, databases, and cybersecurity. You’ll also have a chance to work on a hands-on decryption project.

As an IT manager, you should be able to understand the different use cases for various programming languages, Deanna explains. “You don’t really need coding experience, but you need to understand the levels of coding,” she says. Introduction to IT actually includes a review of programming basics, where you’ll learn how to communicate problem-solving with flowcharts and pseudocode. (Codecademy has lots of additional courses that cover Code Foundations.)

For example, if there’s a project that requires front-end and back-end engineers, Deanna has to know who from the engineering team is best suited to execute it. “What we need to do [in IT] is understand the function of each developer, what they need to do, and what their outcome could potentially be,” she says.

Since IT management also involves working with teams and managing individual timelines, getting experience managing or owning a project is good, so you can “dig down deeper into how system integrations and flows work,” Deanna says. Positions like business analyst can also be a gateway to ultimately becoming an IT manager, because you’ll learn how the business side interacts with IT, she adds.

Also consider being a quality assurance manager or tester, which is someone who tests a developer’s code, Deanna says. “Testing functions of a developer’s output is also an easy entryway into understanding different tech systems,” she says.

Deanna’s biggest piece of advice: Don’t write off IT as an option for you. “I want anybody to get involved in tech, because I think anybody can,” she says.

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If you’re not sure where to begin or what to learn next, this is a great place to start. Check out our top coding courses, Skill Paths, and Career Paths.

Want To Get A Job In IT? Here’s How To Break Into The Field

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Want To Get A Job In IT? Here’s How To Break Into The Field
How to break into IT and get entry-level job

For people trying to break into the IT or “information technology” field, the opportunities can feel vast — almost too broad to know where to start. IT consists of lots of roles beyond manning help desks, like cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data processing and management.

So what does it take to land an entry-level job in IT? For starters, having technical knowledge is just one piece of the puzzle.

Ahead you’ll find even more practical suggestions and advice from IT pros who understand how to get from inspired to hired. For an overview of the IT industry, be sure to check out our course Introduction to IT.

Narrow down your interests

Your first step toward a career in IT is figuring out what application of IT interests you the most, explains Kofi Friar, Senior IT Manager at Codecademy. Are you fascinated by cybersecurity and get excited about uncovering cyber threats or attackers? Or do you like to manage people and organize workflows? Or do you thrive completing hands-on tasks, like hardware repair?

“From there, try to get some exposure to IT,” Kofi says. For example, YouTube is a great resource for technical videos and tutorials that can help familiarize you with hardware components, he says.  

You could also reach out to someone who works in IT, and ask about shadowing them for the day, or just picking their brain over coffee, Kofi suggests. “Try and set that up and see if that continual excitement of what brought you into it is still there,” he says.

Go to conferences

The IT world is very “community-driven,” says Austin Turecek, Senior Cybersecurity Analyst at Flashpoint (who has contributed to Codecademy’s cybersecurity courses). Attending IT conferences in person or virtually is one way you can expand your horizons and network with other IT professionals. It can be inspiring to hear from thought leaders in the industry and people are typically excited to talk shop in these settings, Austin says.

“People who are involved in computers and cybersecurity, especially at conferences, really love it,” Austin says. “If you go up to a presenter, and you’re like, ‘Hey, I thought that was a really interesting point. Could you explain it a little bit more?’ you’ll get into a 3-hour conversation, which can turn into potential connections for jobs in the future.”

If you’re not super confident in your in-person schmoozing skills, or just want to polish your online presence before heading to a conference, here are some tips for using LinkedIn to network.

Embrace your background

Career-switchers who want to make a change and get into IT might second-guess whether they have the “right” experience to get hired. “But one of the things that’s really great about IT is it’s open to a very diverse background,” Austin says. In previous cybersecurity roles, Austin’s colleagues were former professional football players, morticians, club bouncers, history professors — you name it.

Rather than stressing over every line on your resume, focus on emphasizing your soft skills (like creative problem-solving and communication) that could be relevant to IT. “I’ve been hired based, not on my technical skills, but my ability to understand problems and explain them in a simple way, as well as my personality and my people skills,” Kofi says. “Technical skills can always be learned.”

Get some educational training

IT tends to be welcoming of nontraditional educational backgrounds, too. Austin suggests looking into IT certifications that could boost your hiring potential.

It’s also worth it to take online courses (and include them on your resume) to show that you’re proactive about professional development. Codecademy Pro members earn certificates after every completed course, Skill Path, or Career Path. Want to amp up your resume with certifications? Check out our full catalog of courses. Regardless of what IT role you’re most interested in, it’s always a good idea to have a baseline understanding of common programming languages, like Python or JavaScript.

Show that you’re eager to learn

You don’t need to have mastered everything there is to know about a field to get a job. In IT, there’s plenty of room for people to learn on the job. Kofi’s first job in IT was offering hardware and software support at his college’s help desk. The role enabled him to be a sponge: He learned how software applications work on computers, saw how certain issues affect hardware, and was exposed to servers and user account management.

Working in hardware and software laid the foundation for Kofi to get promoted within IT, and ultimately apply the same ideas and solutions to a large-scale enterprise. “No matter what level of technology you’re speaking at, I think that it’s good to understand the primary principles of IT,” he says. “Because whether you’re looking at security or project management, those foundational pieces will always be there.”

Contribute to open-source projects

Submitting code to open-source projects is a great move, even if you’re going for IT roles. For example, if you want to pursue cybersecurity, you could identify vulnerabilities in open-source projects that you submit code to and help improve, Austin says. “A lot of employers will see that as good experience,” he says. And if you’re looking for more hands-on practice to bolster your job applications, check out our cybersecurity Portfolio Projects.

Stay enthusiastic

According to Austin, there’s a misconception that people who work in IT can be dismissive or jaded, but those stereotypes shouldn’t deter you from pursuing the field. “IT is very much: You get what you put into it,” he says. “If you really show people that you enjoy the work and that you want to improve the work, there will always be someone who’s willing to help you grow.”

Kofi agrees that you should embrace a curious and beginner’s mindset: “If you’re curious and you’re passionate, take the time to explore that curiosity,” he says.

Want to work in IT? Start by taking our Introduction to IT course, which will teach you the core IT subjects, like operating systems and databases. You could also check out our Introduction to Cybersecurity course to learn the ins and outs of malware and network security. And for even more advice on how to kickstart a career in tech, head to our career center.

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If you’re not sure where to begin or what to learn next, this is a great place to start. Check out our top coding courses, Skill Paths, and Career Paths.

6 Spring Script Fonts That Will Blow You Away

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6 Spring Script Fonts That Will Blow You Away

Spring is here, and so are flower buds and warmer days. To help you bring your next project to life, we have created a roundup of 6 spring script fonts that will be a great addition to your font collection. They are fresh, modern, and easy to use.

6 Spring Script Fonts

Playful and casual fonts that will be perfect for spring and summer crafts. Combine them with pastels or bold, colorful palettes to create heart-warming designs for your social media. They will be also perfect for all wedding-themed prints and digital graphics. Click on the font cover or name to see its Creative Market page.

Pin me for later!

If you are browsing this post at work or just do not feel crafty right now, we have something for you too! All the fonts collected in one please on easy to pin graphic so you can save those inspirations for later.

6 Spring Script Fonts That Will Blow You Away

Show us your works!

I would love to see what you create using those spring script fonts. Make sure to let us know in the comments, or share your creation on social media and tag Designer Blogs.

Don’t forget to let us know which font is your favorite. Do you like script fonts, or would you rather see a compilation of classic serif or sans-serif fonts?

Still looking for a perfect font? Check the list of 6 Cute & Playful Fonts

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A New Social App

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A New Social App

Have you heard of BeReal? If not, here is how it works:

Once a day, at an unpredictable time, BeReal notifies its users that they have two minutes to post a pair of pictures, one from each phone camera, taken simultaneously. The only way to see what other people have posted that day is to share your own. You can post after the two-minute window closes, but all your friends will be notified that you were late; you can retake your day’s photo, but your friends will know that, too. Your friends can respond to your posts with something called a “RealMoji” — basically a selfie reaction, visible to all of your connections. All of the photos disappear the next day.

Does the idea of this appeal to you? Why or why not? What problems with other social networks do you think BeReal is trying to address? Do you think it, or any other social app, can lessen problems like the toll some have taken on teenage mental health?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more.

Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: categorically

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Word of the Day: categorically

The word categorically has appeared in 83 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on May 5 in “Chile Files Claim Seeking Ecuador’s Place in the World Cup” by Tariq Panja:

Qualification for this year’s soccer World Cup, already disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine, now faces more uncertainty after Chile this week called on FIFA to throw out Ecuador and hand its place in the tournament to Chile instead. Chile contends that its South American rival fielded an ineligible player who is in fact Colombian.

To support its case, Chile on Wednesday filed a claim, reviewed by The New York Times, that contains registry documents, including birth certificates, that it says show the defender Byron Castillo was not only born in Colombia, but also that he is three years older than is stated on the documents used to identify him as Ecuadorean.

… Ecuador’s soccer federation released its own statement in which it rejected what it called “false rumors” about Castillo, who it said was an Ecuadorean citizen in a legal and sporting sense. “We categorically reject any attempt by those who seek to avoid our participation in the World Cup in Qatar, which was legitimately obtained on the field,” the federation said.

Can you correctly use the word categorically in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how categorically can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

How Should We Honor and Mourn Those We Have Lost to Covid?

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How Should We Honor and Mourn Those We Have Lost to Covid?

On Thursday, the number of known deaths from Covid-19 in the United States surpassed one million.

How are we to understand and reckon with this staggering death toll and immeasurable grief? What does one million deaths mean to you?

In “How America Lost One Million People,” Jeremy White, Amy Harmon, Danielle Ivory, Lauren Leatherby, Albert Sun and Sarah Almukhtar grapple with the gravity and meaning of this tragic milestone. First, scroll through the opening interactive until you get to the map of the United States. Then, read the excerpt from the piece below:

The magnitude of the country’s loss is nearly impossible to grasp.

More Americans have died of Covid-19 than in two decades of car crashes or on battlefields in all of the country’s wars combined.

Experts say deaths were all but inevitable from a new virus of such severity and transmissibility. Yet, one million dead is a stunning toll, even for a country the size of the United States, and the true number is almost certainly higher because of undercounting.

It is the result of many factors, including elected officials who played down the threat posed by the coronavirus and resisted safety measures; a decentralized, overburdened health care system that struggled with testing, tracing and treatment; and lower vaccination and booster rates than other rich countries, partly the result of widespread mistrust and resistance fanned by right-wing media and politicians.

The virus did not claim lives evenly, or randomly. The New York Times analyzed 25 months of data on deaths during the pandemic and found that some demographic groups, occupations and communities were far more vulnerable than others. A significant proportion of the nation’s oldest residents died, making up about three-quarters of the total deaths. And among younger adults across the nation, Black and Hispanic people died at much higher rates than white people.

Understanding the toll — who makes up the one million and how the country failed them — is essential as the pandemic continues. More than 300 people are still dying of Covid every day.

“We are a country with the best doctors in the world, we got a vaccine in an astoundingly short period of time, and yet we’ve had so many deaths,” said Mary T. Bassett, the health commissioner for New York State.

“It really should be a moment for us all to reflect on what sort of society we want to have,” she added.

The tragic Covid toll only hints at the suffering of millions more Americans mourning loved ones. Julie Bosman poignantly profiles some of those who have lost family members, spouses and friends and are grieving in a nation that wants to move on in the “The Lost Americans”:

A widow in North Carolina whose husband died of Covid-19 feels crushed when she hears people talk casually about life in America returning to normal. I will never go back to normal, she thinks to herself. I still feel as though I am missing a limb.

A man in New York City who lost his wife to Covid ruminates on the days before she got sick two years ago. He worries that he brought the virus into their apartment, wonders if her death was his fault and asks the unanswerable: Why did he survive Covid, but she did not?

A woman in Minnesota whose mother died from the coronavirus is mired in what she calls “Covid grief.” It deepens when she sees the pandemic mentioned on Facebook, when someone says how happy they are to be reuniting with loved ones again, when she is forced to listen to chatter of masks or politics or vaccines.

“There’s a reminder of how she died, literally every single day, multiple times a day,” said Erin Reiner, whose mother, Gwen Wilson, was a champion bowler and quilter in Kansas until her death at the age of 72.

For more than two years, Americans have made their way through a pandemic that has upended plans, brought tumult and despair, and sickened millions.

But one group has been forced onto a separate path. These are the loved ones of the nearly one million people in the United States who have now died of Covid-19, a catastrophic toll that reflects a death rate higher than in almost any other wealthy country.

These families have walked a path in isolation, mourning and anger. They are carrying a grief that feels lonely, permanent and agonizingly removed from the country’s shared journey.

Students, read the rest of one or both of the articles, then tell us:

  • What is your reaction to the staggering Covid death toll? What thoughts and emotions does this tragic milestone evoke for you?

  • How does reading the stories of those who lost loved ones during the pandemic, chronicled by Ms. Bosman, affect and move you? Do any of the stories resonate with your own experiences and feelings?

  • “We are a country with the best doctors in the world, we got a vaccine in an astoundingly short period of time, and yet we’ve had so many deaths,” Mary T. Bassett, the health commissioner for New York State, said of this tragic milestone. She added: “It really should be a moment for us all to reflect on what sort of society we want to have.” How would you respond to her perspective? How has the pandemic and the extraordinary loss of life affected how you think about American society?

  • The Times writes that some demographic groups, occupations and communities, such as the nation’s oldest residents, as well as Black and Hispanic people, have been far more vulnerable than others. What does that make you think or feel? What does this say about our nation?

  • What is the importance of noting these tragic milestones? Do you think that the United States has appropriately acknowledged and reckoned with this national tragedy? Why or why not? How else might we as a nation commemorate and mourn the one million lives that have been lost during the coronavirus pandemic?

  • In what ways have you and your community recognized the toll of the pandemic, if at all? What more do you think you could do?

  • Loss is intensely personal, so please only share your experiences if you feel comfortable. If you or your family has lost a loved one to Covid, you might use this space to share something about that person. Tell us what that person was most passionate about or what you miss most about your loved one.

Lesson Plan: To Develop Empathy for Characters, Write Them a Modern Love Essay

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Lesson Plan: To Develop Empathy for Characters, Write Them a Modern Love Essay

I introduced my students to Modern Love by reading “I Wanted To Love Her, Not Save Her” aloud, and explaining the structure of the narrative essay. Then I encouraged them to read at least two more essays of their choice.

Next, I assigned them to assume the voice of one of the characters from “Interpreter of Maladies” and write their own Modern Love column as if they were that character. I stressed that their essays should be simple, clear, include dialogue and tell the story. The essay did not have to have a traditional happy ending, but I asked my students to make a clear point about love. I assigned them a minimum of 1,000 words — not quite as long as the Modern Love column, but long enough that they would really have to get into it. I allowed students to pull entire settings and dialogue straight from the story, but emphasized that the entire column should read more conversationally than the book.

With this assignment, I wanted students to try to feel what it was like to be another person, and to break down the biases that the stories were bringing up in them. I also knew they would learn more about the characters and understand them better by speaking in their voices. It was almost a back door to real literary analysis, as opposed to the analytical paragraph and essay writing they do all year long. And I just knew they would have fun.

Here is what one student came up with when he wrote from the perspective of Dev, a married man who has an affair in the story “Sexy”:

When I met her at the counter of a makeup store, I could tell right away she would have an impact on life. Even though I was a married man, something about her caught my attention. I thought to myself I’m not wearing a wedding ring for a reason. I remember the first words she said to me in a soft voice, as she said, “I don’t usually like men with a mustache.”

I quickly responded in a flirtatious manner, “Is there something different about me?”

“Yes, you’re handsome, very handsome,” she told me.

This was the initial spark in a relationship that would give me butterflies. We started off by spending almost every night together. It helped that my wife was out of the country, making it much easier to spend time with her. The passion I so quickly gained toward this woman had never happened to me before. The feeling of being in love like this was new to me. She knew what to say and when to say it. One night I remember so vividly as she talked about how “it felt lonely to always be alone.”

She then quickly followed that up saying, “Until I met you.”

The feeling I got inside my stomach when she said this was indescribable, as I then responded to her by saying, “I’m so happy we met.”

This student found a way to humanize Dev, who in Lahiri’s story comes across as selfish, and who doesn’t seem to care very much about his wife or his mistress. But here, Dev is a loving, engaged partner rather than someone simply looking to use a woman for a sexual relationship.

Another student wrote about “A Temporary Matter,” a story about a stillbirth that has the effect of separating a husband and wife. The student takes the perspective of Shukumar, the husband, who cannot find his way through his grief and back to his marriage.

It was the worst day of my life. We got in the car after leaving the cold left wing of the hospital, and in some ways I was dreading going home. It was a way for me to escape, to walk around a little and get away, and while I hadn’t told Shoba this, I had held the baby after he had died. When I was in the hospital, it was easy for me not to tell her and, besides, I knew it would hurt her if I did. I just thought it was best that I kept this to myself.

As we were entering the car, we both paused and looked at the baby seat in the back. I watched as a tear fell down Shoba’s face. She tried to keep it discreet, but it was too late. I had already seen it. I didn’t really know what to do so I just gave her a kiss on her forehead and said, “Everything is going to be OK.” I felt numb and guilty for some reason. I didn’t actually know if everything was going to be OK, but it felt like the right thing to say at the moment.

The whole car ride was silent. We normally listened to the radio, fought over directions, and laughed, or we would sing along to our favorite song, “Butterfly” by Jack Smith. But we didn’t say a word. It felt like the longest 15 minutes of my life, like every minute was an hour or day or even a week. It was just so awkward for some reason. I had known Shoba for years. We were married, for God’s sake, but it was like all our history disappeared as soon as we walked out the doors of the hospital, and we were strangers again.

In Lahiri’s story, Shukumar stops caring about even taking care of himself. He’s relieved when his wife doesn’t check on him or talk to him, and he turns the baby’s room into his office, a jarring detail for most readers. But by placing him at the scene of the trauma, and telling the story from his point of view, the student makes Shukumar a more empathetic character.

Assigned Learning – An outdated modality

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Assigned Learning – An outdated modality

In preparation for this post, which is likely to stir emotions on both sides (supporters of assigned learning vs those who are not), I went about and did an exploration of various sites on the web. I stayed clear of academic journals and academic articles, because academics are not the ones taking the online learning courses/content at the corporate level. They are not a new employee. Nor are they the blue-collar worker on the manufacturing floor who is lucky if they are provided time during their day to go online and take some courses/content.

The academics are not mid-managers, managers, let alone C-level suite executives. They do not run an association’s training/education, nor non-profit learning/training, nor customer education in various industries.

There isn’t anything wrong with academia, I speak from experience, but when relying solely on academic data even with online learning (they usually focus on the higher education/ed type of learning – synchronous based), is a detriment. For those who cover online learning, asynchronous based, it is always with the “completion” angle in play.

This was clear in the web searches with the term “assigned learning success rate”.

Every site that I went to, matched assigned learning and thus success with completion. As completion equates to success.

On one hand, there are a lot of L&D, Training and other folks (HR, Sales, EdTech) who truly believe that the best way to show the proof of success for their employees, customers, members and even students are completion rates.

A completion rate though doesn’t tell you whether the learner really is interested, let alone will retain, or the goal of online learning – synthesize the knowledge and build upon that.

Completion rates are something that is learned at an early age. When were you first assigned learning? The first homework assignment? The first read this entire chapter and let’s talk about it the next day?

The process simply repeats itself each and ever year in school. Going to college or a university? Assignments are everywhere (Not every faculty member does this, but the masses do). The term though be be listed as “homework”, as if the one word will change the perception of what is merely assigned. Going to grad school? Flexibility starts to appear, but assigned does show up depending on the professor/instructor/etc.

What is left is an embed on the type of learning, that I’d argue most people were never fans of to begin with. Yet that embedded form of learning is not discarded in online learning for adult learners; oh no; it is embraced with all the extra trimmings.

Synchronous based learning (SBL) is highly used in EdTech Online. You can easily recognize it the moment you see a syllabus or similar. You go step by step. You complete assignments with specific due dates. You complete the entire online course. In turn, the university or college or school can show those completion rates – the high rate – and say, “See – success!”

Brown University has a web page dedicated to “effective online assignments and activities.” One section says the following, “The first assignment is a good indicator of whether a student will complete the course.” ().

Note the words, “complete the course”. Brown isn’t alone in this thinking, but it reinforces the idea around assigned learning.

Coursera offers a report called “Drivers of Quality in Online Learning”. In the executive summary alone the following is presented to the reader

  • Under Instructors – Keep lectures under 10 minutes to improve completion rates by 16% and increase learner satisfaction. Courses that are “roughly” a month long have the highest completion rates.
  • Actionable Takeaways for learners mentions completion multiple times.
  • Under the section, “How to Increase Engagement” – “we use completion rates among the population of learners who are eligible to complete and are the most likely to have a goal of course completion”

The rest of the report taps into the completion aspect, even bringing up MOOCs whose own completion rates are beyond poor, and have been since they arrived on the scene. Who typically takes MOOCs? Adult learners – non-traditional learners (usually refers to adults over 25).

Who tends to buy Coursera? Adult learners – whether they are getting reimbursed by their company, or doing it themselves, or the company is buying it for their learners.

Corporate Assigned Learning

Corporate learning/training with learning systems continue to push the heavy usage of assigned learning. They mention it in their marketing of their system – “assigned learning”. They note in when folks ask about it, “yes, you can do assigned learning”.

The Argument for Assigned Learning on the corporate side

Mandatory. That’s the term we use for assigned learning. It sounds extreme. Do you know who else over abundantly uses the term “mandatory”? Prison.

Mandatory learning – and for our purposes – online, is cited as essential for

  • Compliance of any kind. Let’s not kid ourselves, compliance required training is because companies due not want to be sued. This isn’t about being proactive from the learner standpoint, it is from the corporate, state/province, government, regulatory commission. When do people tend to take compliance courses? Usually at or near the deadline to complete it. Check your data – and let me know how many times Mike went back into that “How to drive a forklift” course? OR how many times did your VP of HR go back into any of the compliance courses they had to take and complete?

Compliance creates a conundrum to those folks who believe assigned learning is not an effective way nor means to retention and synthesis of learning, and acquiring knowledge. It is required, do not pass go – which for now, has to be followed – no exceptions. Could compliance content be turned into something more engaging via interactive labs, with short modules, with benefits to return to the courses/content to continue improvement? Could it be achieved without making it mandatory by the end of quarter or month? Or is it something that has to be done, just as you have to wait at the DMV for hours just for them to tell you, you do not have the appropriate form?

What else is mandatory?

  • Onboarding – Not always all the content, but a chunk of it – sure this is dependent on who is overseeing this, but we are talking general here. A friend of mine who started a new job was given access to the learning system and assigned a set of courses. The courses included such items as company’s procedures, values, navigating the office (they work remote), welcome to the company with the CEO thanking them (pre-recorded) and a video of various employees talking about how much they enjoy working at the company. What value! Any mention of where to find your parking spot?
  • Tasks – The worst. This implies that you have to complete this task – perhaps daily, and in turn it will increase your knowledge and retention because it is often. They are right in one way – your retention – from the standpoint of how much you will dread taking it. Daily assigned tasks are ideal if you want to reside in a flat/home with a significant other who expects (understandably) for you to take out the garbage, mow the lawn, wash the car, water the plants, get the mail, listen to your Dad tell you that they mowed lots of lawns for free, so getting a quarter should be a happy blessing. Seriously though, task assignments, are assignments – like homework but for adults.
  • Job role related – This one makes zero sense. It is as though we are all back at school learning a specific subject and that to proof that we know said subject, you are given due dates/completion requirements. Many a times, it comes from the manager of said individual. If you are telling an employee that you believe in their learning/training of X skills, and “open exploration”, it kind of goes out the window, the moment you tell them, they have to take this and complete it. Couldn’t you achieve the same objective by putting together a catalog of courses/content for that individual or group, let them select from it, (which will tell you far more about them and learning goals for skills and insight) and then monitor from there. If I see that Melissa selected three courses around leadership, then my guess is going to be she is a)interested in this subject b) planning to tap into it or has a reason for seeking that information, c)if she is a manager, then this is an area she wants to improve or build upon, d)if not, she may be looking to develop these skills for future opportunities to be a manager.

Completion Equates to Success

Malarkey. Utter rubbish.

We in the corporate world (and education too) look at those completion rates as though they are the validation we need to show someone, anyone that online learning works and is successful. Successful for the department. Successful the institution, entity, business, association, and so on. Learner completes – therefore they know the information/skill/whatever and this equates to success. High completion rates – we are successful with our online learning.

It means NOTHING. NOTHING. You are not in fifth grade here. You are working at a company. You are not in Ms. Willard’s class staying after school to complete the book report, you failed to turn in during class.

There are learning systems whose entire machine learning algorithm (noted as A.I. by the vendor) is based heavily on completion of the content. Fail to complete? No worries, it is not computed with the algorithm – skipped. Fail to complete? No worries, you are given less weight than if you complete it. Fail to complete? No worries. Just click the “complete” button.

I like Degreed, but from day one (and yes, I saw the system when it first came out, so many moons ago) their system was setup with completion as a key indicator. I remember getting into a discussion with then CEO and Founder, David Blake on whether or not he knew why WBT was created (it wasn’t about completion), because of their instance on completed with the system. Telling someone to click “complete” so that it shows it is completed, skews data.

Skews how you say?

The recommended playlist? Based on completion. So even if Mark spent 29 seconds in course X and clicks complete, the system says he completed it. Despite the fact that Mark never went any further, never went back, did nothing.

Assigned learning? Well, if the majority of company is assigned six courses of the same subject and topic, what do you think will appear skill/topic wise with recommended?

Suggested or most popular? If assigned is the backbone of your employees’ learning or customers, then most popular is skewed.

The data you are looking at with systems whose algorithms weight heavily around completed, or penalize (okay, ignore in some cases), non-completed, is IMO, data misrepresented.

This is why I always ask every vendor the question around weights, completion or non-completed, bringing up a core reason on why WBT was created in the first place. To empower the learner – to learn what they are interested in, when they want to, wherever they are. They are not forced nor required to complete the course/chapter/etc – because synthesis is the better data point here, not completion.

If your learning system presents as a key data indicator – completed vs non-completed and you are relying on this data as the CORE for proof of validation, you need to go back and re-think this thru.

If assigned learning is the ESSENTIAL to your learning for your employees, students, customers or members, then you need to go back and re-think whether this is how you felt when you were assigned learning during your days at school.

If you ever have had the pleasure of listening to employees gripe on having to attend a training session, and take away from their time to do their job, you will recognize first hand, how required really plays here. What is the completion rate for attending? 100%. What is the comprehension and synthesis for these happy err less than enthralled employees on this subject? Very low. They are still stewing about attending.

Bottom Line

If you have a learning system, take a look at whether or not completed is one of the data points you are seeing. My guess, is it will be.

Ask yourself, what completed really means to you? What does it really tell you about the learner? Their retention and synthesis of the content?

Is your learning or training success level solely tied to completion?

Because if that is the case,

Please assign yourself a task.

To re-think your

Approach.

E-Learning 24/7

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