VetPy

VetPy is a Community and Civic Engagement application that helps Veterans learn Python 3 in the easiest and best possible way.

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Inspiration

While going over the significance of “Veteran’s Day”, some of the facts drew my attention. I was shocked to find, “More than two-thirds of veterans consider “finding a job” as the greatest challenge when transitioning to civilian life (69%)”, even after spending the majority of time serving the country! “And not surprisingly, most unemployed veterans report this as their greatest challenge (89%).”. Words alone are inadequate to express the profound debt of gratitude we owe to our veterans, the heroes of our nation who have selflessly accomplished and continue to accomplish so much for us. And one of their greatest challenges is not finding a job. Why? Interviewers fail to see how the 4 to 20 years of military service may have given the potential employee all of the relevant and valuable experience needed to fill that position. I was in deep shock too, when I came across the fact that about 20 - 30 veterans take their lives every day. I knew it was my job to fix these issues, and that is why I made VetPy.

What it does

VetPy is a website that provides and teaches veterans the basic fundamentals of Python programming. This is one of the essential skills for getting a job in the coding field! In addition, VetPy can be used as a hobby, like competitive programming or even just programming for fun. If veterans have interests in different programming applications, they can read some of the blog posts that I have published on my website to keep them engaged! The blog posts range from Data Science to Game Development.

How I built it

I built it using web development languages such as HTML5, CSS, JS, a bit of PHP, and MySQL. I used Python 3, to make the content of what I will be teaching to the veterans.

Challenges I ran into

One of the significant problems I faced while programming the app was assembling the contact page. The contact page structure seems very simple, but when a user sends an email to me that has to go to my inbox, that as a function was challenging to implement. It was not easy, because sending emails requires a database to store the user's info (name, email, subject, message). Another issue was to create a curriculum that would be beneficial for the veterans and at the same time will be interesting and fun learning. Unfortunately, all the online curriculums are targeted at professionals or students.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

I have gained a lot of skills like leadership, hard work, and time management skills while working on this, and this will help me in the future too! I am also very happy that I built an application that can improve and help the community a lot, that is around me. I hope, that this will impact a lot of veterans and help them pursue a job in the coding field.

What I learned

I learned how to manage my time productively, and gained a lot more insight on what hard work is! I also learned more information on CSS and HTML5, that I had not known before. This hackathon itself also helped me gather more knowledge about web development languages and more on their advanced functionalities.

What's next for VetPy

One improvement is publishing more blog articles. This can result in the user exploring a larger set of areas other than what I have listed. For instance, applications in finance, pharmaceutical, tourism, small business, and much more. Additionally, I would like to improve by adding a sign-up system, where users can sign up, and they can save their progress of how much they have covered in the curriculum, and all blog articles they have read. In this way, the user can be more organized and can remember where it had last left off. Lastly, I would like to add a tutorial on hands-on projects, which can be linked to some real-world problems.

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