Day 1: First Open Source Day

        The first day of my summer experience with the Berea College Computer Science department has gone by very quick. I felt nervous prior to today as I have never had an internship in Computer Science - all of my past experiences were within the fields of Teaching, Digital Business and Community Organizing. I really surprised myself with my ability to stay focused and motivated throughout all the hours of coding. To be fair, the experience was really well organized and facilitated to make sure that I fuel my energy levels taking proper breaks from the computer screen. In fact, our group leader Rebekah insisted that we step away from the computer to get some blood going. In the moment I felt like I could work for longer and did not need a break. Now that I reflect on the day, I am realizing that taking breaks helped me to deliver at my best ability.
     Today I had a deeper dive into bash commands on a Linux terminal, downloading different packages for Python. I felt prepared for this learning curve as I had experience with bash in Computer Security class in the Fall of 2018. However, the main difference between the experiences was that in Computer Security we explored bash to be more familiar with the ways to read/write/execute at different access levels, while in this experience we used Bash to create and manipulate the virtual environment packages using venv and pip. I learnt about the importance of using virtual environments and particularly venv from Brad Miller, who is the founder of Runestone. As I reflect on this, I am realizing that it is a big privilege that I am able to directly address any issues I am facing directly to the founder of this incredible tool and almost immediately hear back from him.
        I believe that the highlight of the experience was that I finally got to put my toes in the deep waters of Runestone Interactive library. Its tools provide with capabilites to develop free materials for students in Computer Science all over the world like myself. This, for me, is the key reason why I am passionate about this experience as a future educator. I learnt using a free Runestone book, and now I feel like I am giving back.

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