Jullyane Hawkins speaks perfect English, but she speaks it with an accent because she’s originally from Brazil. This wasn’t a huge problem here in the States until she tried to put her Tourism and Hotel Management degrees to use. Most recently, Jullyane, 27, was working in customer service in Clovis (her husband is in the Air Force), and even though she was good at the job, people were distrustful of her accent and often asked for the manager. This wore on her, so she decided to switch careers.
Tech had always been a side interest, so Jullyane went to a Girl Develop It meeting here in Albuquerque and they told her about CNM Ingenuity’s Deep Dive Coding Bootcamps. The Bootcamps are intensive 10- or 12-week programs that give students the skills they need to secure high-demand web development jobs. Jullyane, who now lives in Albuquerque, was sold.
“It was scary to enroll, but I told myself it was ‘now or never,’” she says.
Jullyane is currently a couple weeks into the Deep Dive Fullstack Bootcamp at CNM Ingenuity’s STEMulus Center downtown and she’s loving it. The work is hard—she’s in class from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-through-Friday and then has homework at night and on the weekends—but she likes being able to concentrate on one topic instead of juggling multiple subjects. And she likes that her instructor and the other students are always supportive.
“All the students come from different places and some have more experience than others, but I don’t feel like anyone is judging me, and I always feel like I can ask questions and speak my mind,” she says.
Her work is also being recognized. Earlier this month, Jullyane won the “Student of Promise” category as part of the Women in Non-Traditional Careers (WIN) Awards, a program that celebrates the successes of CNM students, instructors, and staff working and studying in non-traditional program areas.
When she’s done with the Bootcamp, Jullyane hopes to find a job as a backend web developer. Eventually, she also wants to get her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. Right now, however, she’s just soaking in all of the new information and looking forward to a fresh start.
“It was hard to think about going back to school and starting something completely new, but it’s been totally worth it,” she says.
