[Launch School] Community Update - Feb 24th, 2021

Howdy, everybody. This is Pete, back to bring you the third community update of this year! I’ll be grading ya’ll and reviewing your code, so pay attention. Let’s see what’s happening around Launch School. Capstone! The Launch School Capstone program continues to grow and lead the industry in results. As part of this growth, Chris announced that all Capstone teams from now on will have a Capstone Project Mentor (CPM)! The CPMs are working software engineers at leading engineering-centric companies, working on and with technologies we will be learning about in Capstone. [Meet the Mentors here.]( Podcast S2E10 Last week, in the latest [Launch School Podcast](, Chris chatted with Liz, Jesse, and Katarina about their new peer-led community group called [The Social Network](. Last month, the group held an amazing Conference on Study Habits - check out the [conference recordings](. Later, swing on by [#the_social_network channel on Slack]( and see what else is happening! Peer-Led Study Seminar: TypeScript Our [Peer-Led Study Seminar for Typescript]( began this past Saturday evening (US Time)! Victor and I are acting as guides, but our students are doing the work of learning and then presenting the seminar material. While it’s too late to sign up for this seminar, keep an eye out for the next one, probably launching in the late Spring. I’m sure we’ll have another great topic to cover. Articles and Projects I’m a procrastinator. There. I said it. Several months ago, Weston shared his experience combatting anxiety with the RB109 written exam. He’s back for this update with [his experience preparing for the RB109 interview](westonludeke/preparing-for-my-first-live-coding-assessment-launch-schools-rb109-interview-88ec275335fd), which can be even more harrowing than the exam. Not to be outdone, Alfonso also chimes in with his own experience [Getting Ready for the RB109 Live Assessment](. His In [Don’t be afraid of prototypes](, Katarina takes on one of the most frustratingly difficult parts of JavaScript to learn: prototypes. Prototypes are made doubly difficult because the term is heavily overloaded to mean different things in different places. Katarina attempts to unravel these meanings and make the challenging concept understandable. I simply can’t put it off any longer. It’s time to stop procrastinating and mention John’s [article on Procrastination and Changing Habits](JohnRFinlay/procrastination-and-changing-habits-99c041f52dfa). Do you enjoy reading student contributions? Consider writing something yourself and posting it to our [Sharing Page](! We give Launch School cash credit for articles accepted in our Medium publication. We also offer a $200 credit for Tech Talk presentations. Study Groups and Other Events If you’re new or looking to find individuals to learn or discuss, check out the following study groups and events: - As usual, we have various TA-led [study groups]( happening, with several sessions each week. We have study groups for those new to the program, problem-solving with PEDAC, and getting ready to take on the first few assessments. Whether you’re in the Ruby Track or the JavaScript Track, we have something for you. Check it out! - Slack is positively bustling with all kinds of student-led study groups. Find out what’s going on at the [#the-spot](. - Did you know we have a [Book club](? It’s true! We do! It just started last week and will continue to meet every Wednesday at 4 PM US Eastern Time. All are welcome! The first discussion book is [Buddha’s Brain(. If you missed the first session, no worries -- you can jump in any time! - The [Launch School Women’s Group]( continues with their regular meetup. The next one is scheduled for Sunday, Mar 14th at 1 PM US Central/2 PM Eastern Time. - Speaking of the Women's Group, their last meeting was a meditation session led by Bernardette, a yoga and meditation teacher. It went so well that she's now leading periodic meditation sessions in the #mindfulness channel. Swing by if you're interested! All events are free, though most have limited seating availability. Monitor the [Forum’s Study Groups tab]( for new Study Groups, and watch the [General Forum]( for news of other future events. Student Projects Austin, Leena, and Mandy built a command-line tool RubyGem called [ruby_blogger](. The tool lets you track exceptions in your Ruby code and was designed to help beginners track and think critically about the exceptions that occur in their code. Minh and Jemima have begun a RubyGem learning project called [spot]( that is open to Launch School students. They intend to build an app that will help Launch School students sign up for study groups, both one-on-one and in groups with approved leads. Check it out! It’s really great seeing practical projects coming from our students well before they’ve reached the end of Core. It really shows how great our students are and how effective our program is. Till Next Time See you around! Stay healthy and safe! Archives for the Community Updates can be found on the [Resources tab](. --------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to stop receiving emails from us, you can use the one-click link below to unsubscribe. [Unsubscribe From All Email]( [Unsubscribe From Weekly Summaries](