If you saw the banner and title, you'd probably assume I had this all figured out.
I've been in college for six years now. I still remember the exact moment a thought popped into my head and refused to leave: "The tech industry is so diverse, the market so saturated—how does someone like me, with failing grades, no technical skills, and no clear niche, even begin to find his place in it?"
actual cropped pictures of my failing grades
Far from motivating me, that thought did the opposite—it left me anxious and directionless, filling my time with things that didn't matter, doing everything except preparing myself for a competitive industry that would eat me alive if I didn't try. Part of me convinced myself I already knew enough. Liking tech was innate in me, but I couldn't do anything to create tech with my own hands. Sit me down in front of a laptop, and I'd find myself staring at a blank IDE, cursor blinking, not knowing what to write because I didn't really know what I wanted to create.
And then, somehow, in the middle of all that, I ended up at an AWS Cloud Club workshop event. I didn't go in with a plan—I just wanted to try, because I had nothing else to lose. Maybe my anxiety pushed me into it. Frankly, I had fun. Building a project from scratch, getting introduced to software technologies I had no idea existed, writing code again—all of it sparked a curiosity in me I hadn't felt in a long time.
My very first AWS Cloud Club Workshop
It was those same people who sparked my curiosity that opened a door to an opportunity I could grab—to lead a department within AWS Skillbuilder. I thought to myself that maybe this was a worthy shot: a chance to reclaim my motivation, to actually have something to stand for and be determined about in the world of tech, to start learning different technologies, and maybe, along the way, to focus on my academics too.
Landing the role of Data Science Lead for Skillbuilder came before I actually knew how to be one, that's how I started teaching myself through self-paced workshops with NextWork and the AWS Skill Builder(Website). Those workshops were an eye-opener: I realized I knew almost nothing compared to what I'd believed about myself. At first it was overwhelming because I was entering a new world I haven't been to, but the labs and projects were straightforward and thoroughly explained step-by-step. I gathered as much knowledge as I could to prepare myself to host events and build projects using the AWS console, sharing what I learned with our community and actually getting them hands-on with different AWS services.
Skillbuilder events hosted by AWS Cloud Club Adamson University (Now AWS Student Builder Group Adamson University) in which I spoke.
Even then, it wasn't easy. I'd spend hours retracing notes, just to make sure I could explain things clearly to someone else the next day. But somewhere in that repetition, the thing I used to dread—sitting in front of a blank screen, not knowing what to build—started turning into something I looked forward to. Not because I'd gotten good at it, but because I finally had a reason to keep trying.
Day by day, things started to shift. My grades actually got better—not because school suddenly became easy, but because I finally had a reason to care about what I was learning. I started taking on projects of my own, even landed a few clients to build software for—something I never thought I'd be capable of just a few years prior. I began showing up more, not just to AWS events, but to tech communities in general, proactively looking for ways to learn and contribute instead of waiting for opportunities to find me. Looking back, that's where it really started: the grit, the determination, the curiosity, the hunger to learn that I didn't know I had in me until I gave myself a reason to use it.
Projects I've developed so far (some with collaborators)
(Read the first letters of each paragraph starting at the top) But now, I'm a Skillbuilder Director, still trying his best to prove that those six letters were never the end of my story—just where it began.
I'd like to thank everyone who paved the way for me in this direction, from my peers within the AWS SBG Adamson Community, the AWS User Groups, AWS Skillbuilder, AWS E:novators, and the whole AWS Community. Thank you for showing me so much more, allowing me to collaborate, learn, and teach the community too.
I'm MJ Medina from Adamson University, how about you? where do you find your determination?
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