Conclusion

All things have to end.

WOW, you made it! Congratulations!

‌ An essential part of your experience is reflection: what have you learned during this process? What do you think you did well, and what aspects you could do better? What do you want to share with future generations?

‌ Unfortunately, we have not been able to carry out this event due to the coronavirus pandemics. But we've done a lot of jobs, and this guide is our way to reflect, summarize our learning experience, and share what we'd like to hear from the upper-class students at the beginning of our path!

‌ During this 8-month path, we've experienced lots of ups and downs. We realized that first of all, we are classmates at Minerva: this project will end, but we will still remain classmates. So, first of all, we should value and understand each other as personalities! We experienced in practice what are the consequences of the poor definition of purpose - when we couldn't communicate with each other and interpreted the same things differently just because we had different images of our hackathon. We've gone through the rejection of MLH - the biggest name in the student hackathon industry - and lost the last year's venue when we relied on it a lot. We went through not having access to the previous year's website, losing our sponsors, and - as a result of unexpected pandemics - losing our hackathon.

‌ But we've also learned a lot! We learned that despite all of us are different - or because all of us are different - we can effectively work as a team. We visited a lot of hackathons and, as prospective organizers, started looking at them from a different perspective, mentioning all the backend job that is invisible for participants. Thanks to Capri, we learned how to be effective at the meetings - that having an agenda and setting up the mood before starting the session actually makes the meeting time much more efficient! We learned how to properly create documentation, how to take notes, and how to effectively provide feedback - trust us, all of these matters a lot! We experienced community support: it is a fantastic feeling when your classmates are willing to help you in crucial moments. And, finally, we understood that despite all the fall downs, we can stand up and do everything - it is the most powerful motivation to move further!

‌ We would like to take a moment and appreciate everybody's support: from our M23 classmates, from upper-class students, from our Civic Partner Capri, and from our Faculty Grader Professor Terrana! Everything that we've done, we've done feeling and experiencing your support!

‌ We hope the best of luck on your way, future Minervans!

‌ With best wishes,