We met with one of our students, John Asenso, to learn more about his journey from criminal justice into the tech field. We hope that this gives you an idea of the learners that are in our learning community. This interview is a part of ongoing interviews of our Qwasar students.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, where you are from, what's your educational background?
I was born and raised in Oakland, CA. I attended the University of California, Davis around 39 years ago. I got a degree in Sociology Law and Society. After graduating from UC Davis, I then went to work for the state of California where I worked as a Corrections Officer at San Quentin. After some time, I eventually moved into the parole division. I retired from that field 10 years ago.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about learning, but I am also passionate about teaching. I used to teach Zumba (dance fitness) classes, but life stepped in and I was unable to continue teaching classes. Now, I attend one of my former student’s Zumba class. I come from a family of instructors - my father was a college Professor and my mother was a teacher, so it is in my DNA to teach. I am also passionate about sharing my journey and my path because this program at Qwasar has transformed me.
What do you want to do in the future?
In the short term, I would like to get an apprenticeship in one of the following areas: cybersecurity, site reliability, or networking. In the long term, I would like to have my second career in cybersecurity. Perhaps in a Global Security Operations Center like Google, LinkedIn, or Facebook. Since the sky’s the limit in terms of what we’re learning here at Qwasar, I would maybe help build a Security Operations Center as an architect, or maybe even found my own company. I’ve seen multiple people come back that have started their own businesses or gone on to do great things after finishing the Qwasar program.
Tell us a little bit about your journey to Qwasar.
When myself and some other parole colleagues were meeting in a conference room, we were thinking of creating an app. I pledged to create one when I retired, so I did just that. I enrolled in a community-based coding program, StreetCode Academy, where I learned and I made an app called “At Your Service.” On this app, you put your phone in landscape mode, and as you scan the horizon, it shows you some resources in the area. The app was originally created as an idea for newly released inmates and convicts who are re-entering the community and weren’t familiar with the area but it can also be good to use if you’re new to an area to help you navigate around. The app is no longer on the App store. It had a great run, but it’s been deactivated now. I heard about Qwasar from a friend in a cybersecurity course and I decided to enroll. I am resurrecting "At Your Service" as a project I am working on.
Tell us about your journey within Qwasar, any struggles you have had, and how you overcame them.
Once I started the program, I realized how difficult the journey to learn coding can be. Around five months ago, I thought there would have been no way that I could work with C programming. I was struggling internally thinking, “I don’t want to go to standup” and then I had to think, “why wouldn’t I want to? There are people there to help me.” In addition, there are distractions everywhere. I have had to discipline myself. Ultimately, I had to set up physical barriers to limit or eliminate distractions by getting rid of YouTube and turning off the TV to make myself focus on coding. Also, it helps to get out of the house and go to my community college’s STEM center to focus and work with a tutor.
What have you learned about yourself while at Qwasar?
It has opened me to different points of view, as well as expanded my knowledge. My journey here has transformed me in terms of my second career as well. In one of my sessions, a colleague was reading the book Atomic Habits and so I also began reading it. I realized that change is gradual, it doesn’t happen overnight; therefore, consistency is the key. Gaëtan (Qwasar co-founder) often asks me to repeat problems multiple times to ensure that I am grasping the content and that has helped me to completely transform. At first, when he would ask me, I was hesitant and didn’t want to do it. Eventually I decided to give it a shot and repeat the problems and it made a huge difference. In my opinion, Qwasar is the best thing since chocolate chip cookies! Everyone here is very supportive. When I was a kid, my first introduction to computers wasn’t a positive experience and I was seen as an outsider so it made me not want to pursue a technical career. Now that I have come back to computers, and been around such reassuring people, it has been incredibly helpful. There is a network of people around me that are supportive here at Qwasar.
What encouragement would you have for others starting out their coding journeys and careers?
Be open, and be willing to learn. This program isn’t impossible. You don’t have to know all the answers, and there are resources you can use and people you can reach out to. If you put in 100% effort to the program, you will get back 100%. There will be times when you are not understanding the content, you are hitting a mental block and you need to get away, but be gentle with yourself. Give yourself time to learn. You aren’t competing with anyone as much as you’re competing with yourself. The program has a calendar that shows how much time you spend practicing each day. The longer you spend, the darker blue the day turns so aim to get more dark blue days! Qwasar is an investment and you’re waiting for it to grow. Quickly, you’ll realize that your investment in the program has grown. You will want to share that growth with other people.
We are thankful for John's time in developing this interview and sharing his insights and journey. We are looking forward to sharing more student interviews in the upcoming months.
