Are you ready for the YES Hackathon?
This year a social hackathon will revolutionize the way we learn at the YES. In this blog post you will find out all you need to know about the YES hackathon. Our head of track Danila Belen Blanco Travnicek joined us on the YES World Podcast to share all the juicy details about the hackathon. Are you ready to find out more? Keep reading!
Let’s start off with a definition. The word hackathon is a combination of the words “hacking” and “marathon”. Originally, a hackathon would mean a coding event for programmers. In these hackathons tens, hundreds or even thousands of “hackers” join together for a certain amount of time (usually 24 or 48 hours) to program something together. While at the YES we are not aiming to program any software, our hackathon is more of a social one; the problems we are solving, or “hacking”, revolve around the topic of mental resilience.
“Usually in a hackathon you form teams with people who you don’t know beforehand, and who come from different backgrounds – and at the YES we have people from all over the world! All the different backgrounds and cultures are mixed,” Danila explains.
“In a hackathon we can learn things in a very different way than in school. For me personally, having a hackathon at the YES is a great idea and it will really help develop soft skills like team leadership, time and project management…. A lot of different skills are put to the test and a hackathon is a great tool for that,” Danila says. “It’s a great blend of everything you’ve learnt at the YES; the content and knowledge, and attitude and abilities; everything will be mixing. Students will be able to learn a lot and to put to test what they have learned. I’m very curious to see what the students will come up with!” she adds.
In the YES hackathon process, teams will choose a challenge; a problem statement, and work together to build a solution together and make a pitch: a concrete presentation on how they will solve the issue mentioned in the given problem.
The challenges and given problem statements are divided into three categories: 1) self-esteem, body image issues and societal ideals related to appearance, 2) loneliness, isolation and lack of belonging 3) stress. These three categories, or paths, are a result of extensive research and discussions, and are shared by young people despite their background and culture. From each category, different scenarios, a.k.a. “problems” will be presented that students can choose from and build solutions for.
In order to build a solution and pitch it in front of a jury, the students at the YES will learn relevant skills within the four tracks (public speaking, design thinking, team leadership and project management). On the two final days of the YES the games begin: first a full day for working on the hackathon problems as teams, and finally pitching their solutions in front of juries. And this is where the aspect of competition kicks in!
“There is no hackathon without a competition! We will evaluate the solutions based on the pitches: how well it catches one’s attention and whether it has the power to solve the issue, how innovative and relevant the solution is,” Danila explains the criteria.
We will have 40 teams to begin with, and there can only be one winner – a huge competition is to be expected!
“A hackathon is a way to become a global change maker; it helps you understand that you CAN do something, and act together with others to tackle an issue that you face. I look forward to teams coming together and think about a special problem that probably affects them too - and notice that they can actually do something to change things,” Danila shares.
Students will leave the yes with concrete tools and skills on taking action and making an improvement on certain social issues.
As a final tip Danila shares her message tot he students: “Really take the best out of this experience. The hackathon will have its consequences later in your life, which you might not realize right now. If you really trust the process and put your full potential into the hackathon, I can guarantee that great things will happen! Be fully hands-on in the hackathon, ask questions, debate with your team and give your full potential - when we do things with full potential and quality, nothing can go wrong! I hope you can experience this in the hackathon”.
Wise words, thank you Danila!
If you want to hear the full discussion on the Hackathon with Danila, head over to the newest episode of The YES world Podcast – you can find it on Spotify, Anchor.fm and Apple Podcasts.