E is for Eskwelabs Issue 79 - Heart ❤️ and Hard Work 🔨
For our fourth anniversary, we're putting the heart in our hard work ✨
We created this newsletter to keep our alums, partners, and anyone interested in learning skills for the future of work updated and connected to our ever-growing community. If you want to read our previous issues, you can check them out here.
Ciao! This is Meg speaking! 😉 We find ourselves in the middle of the year—can you believe how fast time flies? Now that we’re starting Q3, it shouldn’t be surprising if we find ourselves a bit tired and maybe even burned out. 😔 Rather than telling you to “stay positive” and “keep your chin up,” this issue seeks to validate those feelings—part of the journey is to acknowledge that things won’t always be smooth sailing. ⛵ And the best part is—we don’t have to go through these hurdles alone.
The journey isn’t lonely if you are with the right people. 🌈 In fact, it is even more fruitful when you share it with people who can relate to similar struggles and share the same vision. This has been deeply sought in the workplace since the pandemic began. With people working from home, we lose that sense of connection and camaraderie that comes from being physically together. 🫂 For teams who continued working remotely even post-pandemic, opportunities to gather in-person contributions to a company’s growth are invaluable.
I’m happy to share that the Eskwelabs team recently celebrated our 4th anniversary together! 🥂 I can’t wait to share all that transpired in this heart-warming get-together in this issue.
Some questions we’ll answer in Issue 79 of E is for Eskwelabs:
How do I keep myself motivated in the data science industry? 🚀
Why should we focus on outcomes, rather than outputs? 🌳
How does Eskwelabs ensure that the whole community is moving forward together? ⛰️
Reading time:
Happy reading!
It’s thinking time! 🧠
As of 2023, data science, AI, and Machine Learning are the most competitive industries in the future of work. The rapidly changing digital landscape and the increasing necessity for continuous innovation and problem-solving have made these fields highly sought after. 💼 Being the data professionals that we are, we have to stay motivated and be strategic when doing our tasks while also avoiding burnout.
At Eskwelabs, we make a conscious effort to upskill holistically. Our Data Science Fellowship is a cohort-based and project-based bootcamp with a 1:5 mentor-to-student ratio which provides a supportive community and personalized guidance to keep you motivated. 👏 But it doesn't stop there.
Eskwelabs ensures that the whole community moves forward together through continuous learning and collaboration. For example, we recently launched DataQuest, a series of puzzles and brain teasers about all things data. Our first one is on data science, and if you haven’t caught it on our facebook page, here’s the puzzle again:
Pencils down! ✏️ Let’s see if you got the answers correct:
Python
Forecasting
Clustering
Statistics
Correlation
Data Mining
Great job! 👍 Let this crossword puzzle serve as a reminder that Cohort 12 of our Data Science Fellowship is just around the corner!
To supplement your preparation for the Pathfinder Assessment, we invite you to a Review Session! 📚 This is a FREE session on August 3 designed to set you up for success in your application process. Sign-up here: https://bit.ly/DSC12_RS2
Cohort 12 classes start on September 11. 🗓️ Register today! https://eskwe.link/DSFellowship
It’s party time! 🎉
Our commitment to providing a supportive and engaging learning environment is at the core of what we do, and this was reaffirmed last July 7 when the Eskwelabs team, with our mentors and instructors, got together to celebrate our fourth anniversary in person! 🥳 Our celebration was filled with laughter, heartfelt conversations, and reflections on our collective journey. The event served as a reminder of how crucial it is to have a supportive network as we navigate the ever-changing digital landscape.
We kicked off the kids-themed festivities with a program at Xception. The place was set up thoughtfully: there was a board for people to write letters to each other on the right, a space for gifts on the left, food and chairs in the middle, and a really engaging presentation in front! 🎈
The program commenced with our CEO, Angela Chen-Delantar, giving an encouraging presentation about our company milestones and direction. 🎤
Next, Chief of Staff Francine Tan led a very heart-warming activity—an interactive poetry reading! 😯 The audience was asked to pick words from a jar that would determine what their groups were. It’s called “Pinoy Henyo Matching Game'' because we had to look for our group mates by describing the word we picked without actually saying the word. These groups were Eskwelabs-related, like names of events such as “Open House” or “Demo Fest” or bootcamp features such as “mentorship” or “capstone projects.”
When we were all grouped together, Francine read a poem she wrote that starts with every letter of the alphabet. Beside her was an easel, paint, and a blank canvas. 🎨 As we heard our group names mentioned in the poem, we went to the front to paint something on the canvas—so it was kinda like a continuous collective artwork! Here are some snippets of the poem:
R stands for Review sessions and rebrand workshops, but this is a preview for later, there is fresh news we're about to drop.
S for socials. When we play “Among Us,” it's one hilarious time. Having this much fun should be a crime.
Our finished product:
Then, Angela, COO Aurelien Chu, and Senior Brand Designer Isabela Lumba talked about where the company is headed in the coming year. 💫 I’m telling you guys—there’s A LOT to look forward to in this community!
Sticking to the theme, we had a Jollibee meal together and spent the rest of the night playing arcade games at Timezone. 🎮 It truly was an opportunity for us to de-stress and hang out with each other—a reminder that we exist outside our Zoom icons and virtual calendars.
Thank you to everyone who made it to our event! 💗
It’s game time. 👾
It's during these face-to-face interactions that we can truly appreciate the journey to navigate the digital landscape. Events like these not only bring us closer together but also serve as a reminder of the incredible support system we have in each other. 🌅 The exchange of ideas, the synergy that arises when minds come together, and the genuine human connection that is established cannot be replicated through virtual means alone.
Until next time, Eskweloves! 👋
💌 Learning with you,
Meg Ruiz
Junior Content Designer at Eskwelabs