[Launch School] Community Update - August 7, 2024

Hello, everyone! Philip here with another Community Update! I'm writing this for the first time as a published game designer! Last year, my friend Amanda and I developed and sold a card game, and it's finally out in the world. This means this board game geek has his own page on [BoardGameGeek](. [Picaresque] I hope to publish even more games in the future. For now, though, it's time to dig in and focus on Launch School. Speaking of, let's talk about what's new! --------------------------------------------------------------- Core Live Launch School kicks off Core Live at the end of the month! This new program is designed to help new students get started with the core curriculum. Unlike the typical Launch School learning experience, it will happen live and in real-time in Zoom classrooms with groups of other learners. Applications are open and will close next week (August 16th), so apply soon! You're welcome to apply if: - You're a Core Curriculum student in the 101 course of any track. - You're a Prep student planning to start Core by August 26th, when Core Live commences. You can learn more and apply on the [official Core Live page](. Programming Workshops on YouTube [Python Videos] Our Python Programming Essentials series of workshops is now available to watch on YouTube! Whether you're on the Python track or you're just curious about the language, you can check them out [here](. New Interview Assessments The LS171 and LS181 interview assessments will go live on August 12th! As a reminder, if you haven't completed the written assessment by the 12th, you must also take the corresponding interview assessment. Check out the [announcement]( for more details. So Long, Cloud9 We have long recommended AWS Cloud9 as a development environment for Windows users. Unfortunately, AWS no longer supports Cloud9 for new users. Not to worry, though! There are some excellent alternatives, which we discuss in our official announcement about this change [here](. We'll expand our coverage of at least one of these alternatives as soon as possible. 2023 Capstone Results Chris Lee recently presented the 2023 Capstone results. The presentation is now available on YouTube [here](. If you missed the live presentation, I recommend watching this recording to get a picture of the job market and how Launch School is adapting to it. Women's Group The next meetup of the Launch School Women's Group will be on Sunday, August 25th. This will be a more open-ended discussion, a chance to share study tips, ask questions, and get to know one another. You can learn more and sign up [here](. If you're a female or nonbinary student at LS and not already part of the Women's Group in Slack, you can join [here](! There's also a dedicated channel for trans and nonbinary students [here](. Meetups Students and grads from Vancouver met up for a scenic hike a few weeks ago: [Vancouver Meetup] If you would like to meet your LS peers, you're in luck - we've got a lot of upcoming meetups: - Vancouver is back at it with [another meetup]( tomorrow, August 8th. - Southern California is planning a meetup in their [regional Slack channel](. - [Northern California]( has one coming up soon. - Austin’s having a meetup August 17th - find out the details in [#regional-austin](. - The Portland folks are planning a meetup for August 24th. Check out the [#regional-portland]( channel. - Finally, the folks in [#regional-washington-dc]( are planning a get together in early September! And remember: Anyone can set up a meetup in their region! If you can't find a channel for your region, go ahead and create one, then announce it in the [#general]( channel. Be sure to use a prefix of regional- in your channel's name to help make it easy to find. New #showcase channel: Chris just [announced]( a new [#showcase]( channel in Slack. If you've built a project you'd like to show off, this is the place! Some unbelievably cool projects have already been posted here. It's inspiring to see what these Launch School students and grads have built. [Snake Game] My high score in Christopher's Snake game: 29 brains eaten. Who's ready to knock me off the pedestal? Recruiting SPOT leads: The SPOT is looking for new leads! Leading SPOT sessions is a fantastic way to stay strong on fundamentals, refresh your knowledge of past courses, and get to know the community. As a former lead, I can't recommend it highly enough. You don't need previous teaching experience or anything - just a willingness to teach and to learn. To become a lead, you can learn more [here](. Medium Article: Over on Medium, Joshua wrote [an article](michael.joshua.hall/optimizing-my-study-approach-at-launch-school-7a83f2bb3e2d) about studying more efficiently. Studying is one of the meta-skills you constantly refine at Launch School. Joshua's article is an excellent discussion of how to sharpen that skill. Self-knowledge, self-discipline, measurable goal-setting - it's all here. What Are Your Favorite Study Tools? Speaking of study tips, I really liked [this Slack conversation]( about note-taking tools. If there's an organizational app or productivity tool that you love, shout it out in the thread! --------------------------------------------------------------- That's it for this update! May your studying go smoothly, your code runs on the first try, and you can find time in your schedule to enjoy yourself. Until next time! --------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to stop receiving emails from us, you can use the one-click link below to unsubscribe. [Unsubscribe From All Email]( [Unsubscribe From Weekly Summaries](