Hi Geff

I understand that this is a difficult time. Making these changes requires admitting you were wrong and that is never easy. I want to extend a helping hand wherever possible because as much as you are trying to make this succeed, I also want this to succeed.

The bootcamp is a really good introduction to what WTC is about in terms of the learning environment and peer to peer system. However the idea behind WTC starts to fade as time passes by and stress sets in. I believe that the changes from 2016 have had some effect on the environment, but I also feel that there has been a major disconnect between the staff and the students and this has been an even bigger contributor.

We can see the difficulties that come with starting a school of this nature, the first of its kind. It's a scary prospect not just for you, but also for us students who have entrusted you with our futures. So far you have absolutely made a massive difference in many of our lives and this cannot be overstated! What you have done has worked for us, but I feel like some parts of the system are not fully compatible with the culture and learning styles in South Africa.

In the bootcamp, you interact with students publicly and impersonally and this I feel is a key part in the success of the bootcamp. That interaction and guidance creates a feeling of caring by not caring, if that makes sense. What I mean is you wanted it to work, and if you didn't shout at them and tell them what needs to be done, it won't get done. I think this process needs upscaling, and maturing.

A big part of WTC is preparing the student for the workplace, and that includes being professional, using slack and emails and staying on top of things. The problem here is many students are not even on top of thier own lives and have no idea where to start when it comes to being professional. The schooling system is absolutely no help in this regard as, if anything, it only trains the students to be lazier with its lower grade subjects and lowering of pass grades.

What WTC needs to be is a bridge between the working environment and the the subjective reality each student lives in before they joined WTC. In some cases, this requires some students to undergo serious maturing and personality changes, and that is a process which needs strong guidance and time. I feel like the CYFS program has this intent, but right now it is not achieving its goal. The material needs to be planned and formalised and centered on assisting students in finding thier core aim in the world. This can be done with the help of personality tests such as 'The Big 5' which will allow students to see what parts of themselves they need to work on to become successful in life.

So assisting those that dont have the mental ability to do what is required is one part of solving the problem. The other part requires you to teach student how to learn (which is done well through the material), and how to live professionally. There are many ways to achieve this and I feel the new Intra will also play its part, but a few things are required from the staff in order for all or at least most students to become successful. One of these is stability, the staff needs to give off an air of confidence that you are currently lacking as you are unsure of yourselves. I know money can be a barrier of achieving this, as to do it effectively you will certainly require more staff. What will help is having someone dedicated to roaming the clusters and assisting the students with any trouble they might be having when it comes to learning, weather it be helping them off Youtube if they waste too much time, or not being scared to tell everyone in the cluster to shut up. It is not my responsibility as a student to police and help those who can't help themselves because I have enough work on my plate and would rather help those that want to be helped. I guess everyone does want to be helped and that's why having someone there who can help those who don't know where to start will be very beneficial. Another reason for this is the feeling that can come with not working: "too late now, I'm already fucked". I think this happens quite a bit and is the biggest reason for students stressing and having someone available to cheer on the students to make the right choices will help more than you can imagine.

That is what will truly turn this 'pass' environment into a 'learning' environment, some assistance. People are lost and just some guidance and interaction will go a long way in motivating and exciting students. Some small things like hyping up projects as they are released and highlighting some past students attempts and maybe getting us to send in a video of our thoughts on the projects and where we are now to excite them about the future. Perhaps the alumni program is also a key player here and can help achieve these goals. For now, the staff needs to interact in a guiding and pushing way that will not only encourage the students to do thier work, but make them excited to do it. I know you want this to be the responsibility of the students, but this is where you need to be the bridge, as 99% of students have no idea what an agile environment is like and how to hold themselves and thier peers accountable.

So I have lots of ideas and I would like to be involved in the process in any other way you see possible. When it comes to my perspective, I feel like it was very difficult to get things done as the staff felt overwhelmed and that spread to the students and definitely affected the environment in the school. So I put my head down and worked and found productivity in my isolation which unfortunately prevented me from interacting more with my peers.

I think that the module system definitely has its merits, but I feel right now they constrict us more than they assist us in choosing projects. We also have very little time to actually do projects and as a student in the first year, a week or two to do a project seems like a long time when in reality, it really isn't. The first semester projects are very difficult and require so much leaning with very little reward. It's a rough continuation of the bootcamp and what everyone is really looking forward to is all bundled up into the 4th semester and then you don't have all the time you would like to work on it because of social tech.

Almost none of the jobs require knowledge in C and although it is a very good starting point, if most people have only done 2 or 3 projects they are seriously going to struggle, especially if they need to learn a framework on a language they haven't learnt yet. I came back to my company with the hopes of being able to work in python on big data, but now I have to learn React to do more front end work, and that is what most people need from us by the sounds of things. So I feel like some effort needs to go into addressing the need of the sponsors as that will contribute to how happy they are with the students.

The social tech was a great idea, but once again I feel there needs to be a more active form of guidance by the staff or jury to help us make full use of the opportunity. Having and wanting to do all the cool projects that became available to us further added to the chore that social tech ended up feeling like.

To end off I want to reiterate the fact that what you are doing is indeed working and having a significant impact on our lives. This part is the most difficult as you need to fight through these challenges that will make or break WeThinkCode_ and a new form of education that could change Africa and the world.