My Story:

Hello, my name is Antonio, but you can call me Tony or In ghana, you are named based on the day of the week you are born. Kwaku . I am Italian-Ghanian born in Vicenza, Italy. When I was one year old, I joined my cousins in Ghana. For the next five years, we all lived together with my grandma and my aunt. I don’t have many memories of those days, but I vividly remember the colours, the My most precious possession is my smile despite any adversity smiles of the people and the taste of the foods. When I turned six, my father came from Italy to bring me back to Vicenza. I was raised in a multicultural environment, which helped me shape my open mindset. More than two years ago, I decided to move to London to face new challenges and discover myself.

Facts about me:

• I am a magnet for monks. I meet them everywhere. The goal is to meet them in Paris, London and many to come. 9 different countries and then go to Tibet for the tenth meeting.
• I am training to run the London Marathon
• I love making and editing videos
• I have worked as a tutor for different non-profit organisations. I love sharing what I know with everyone.
• I love music Check the picture 😉 (I bite it since 1992)
• I love to if I am not doing that probably I am eating or editing videos laugh
• I know 3 languages (Italian, Twi and English)
• I am a proud nerd
• I love playing video games, table games(very complicated ones) and Dungeon&Dragons
• Big fun of manga
• I speak a lot (lol)
• If you didn't notice, yellow is my favourite colour

Why Coding:

I have always been passionate about computers and tech in general. I remember, back in 2008 installing Ubuntu on my home computer. However, I never dared to pursue a career in software development. Different factors led me to think that I wasn’t good enough, and my passion laid elsewhere. How wrong I was at the time.

My long journey to realisation took me through different stages:

• Study chemical engineering: I loved the logic behind math, chemistry and physics.
• Work as a scientific subject’s tutor/mentor for students in Vicenza.
• Cultivating my passion for video editing.
• Work as a digital marketing assistant: I love being creative and build things from scratch.

In 2018 I realised that I wasn't happy neither satisfied, so I decided to move to London to get international exposure and exciting opportunities. I worked as a Sales Lead Generator until March 2020 when I was put in furlough. That was the wake-up call I needed to conquer my fears and work hard towards my dream to become a software developer.

"Coding never was a second choice, It was a dream that I couldn't achieve because of the fear of failing"

I love coding because it makes your ideas become a reality. Coding is logical and creative at the same time. As a creative person with good analytical thinking, I love this duo. I love thinking about an idea and how I could realise it, using HTML and CSS for the style and the display of the content and JavaScript for all the logics and functionalities behind it.

"Arts and Logics at their finest."

All my experience led me to where I am now. I am very proud of this journey because it led me exactly where I wanted to be, helping me know myself better and achieving my dreams.

"If you want something enough, you will take action on it."

Coding my website for FAC2021 was a fun, challenging and gratifying experience. It allowed me to logically think about functionalities and elements and creatively imagine how to showcase them on my application website.

WHY FAC:

Back in March, when I started my coding journey, despite all the stories about the first “Hello World”, the program that hooked me to coding was a "simple" calculator. I was completely captivated, but I realised that I had a long way to go if I wanted to convert this passion to a profession. During this exciting journey, my girlfriend told me about this web-developer who shared his own experience to become a software developer and how the FAC Bootcamp shaped his life and his view on coding and the community around it. After hearing this career-changing story, I was excited. Therefore, I quickly did some googling and some networking to directly connect with old alumni from Giavanna and Michele are my angels and they gave me a lot of information about FAC FAC .

After more than six months, I can easily say:

Joining the FAC community was one of the best and rewarding decisions of 2020.

These are the reasons why:

• Community, the View and Ideals

  For several months I studied programming by myself and that was nice, I had a lot of fun. But after joining the FAC community, everything changed. I was in a place where everyone had the same dream, they were actively working for a common goal. I felt I was in a safe place. The idea of inclusivity and collaboration makes me want to change society with technology.

  Different backgrounds but the same dreams.

• Peer to Peer learning

  Peer to peer learning puts you in a place where you share your knowledge, which helps you learn, even more. When you explain concepts to someone, you clarify them in your head. In my case, I learned a lot of JS and shared what I know about git CSS and HTML.

• Sharing experiences and dreams

  The FAC community is broad, there are many people with different backgrounds, stories and motivations. You can genuinely connect with all the applicants because of similar aspirations.

• People that I can call them friends

  Since joining FAC, I have met many applicants. With some of them, I worked on projects, katas, and websites sharing our knowledge. With others, I become very close and I can now consider them friends. One of them gave me this. This book means a lot to me. It represents my dreams and my oath to share my knowledge with minorities in tech, people who can’t afford a formal education.

  With great power comes great responsibility

• A lot of fun and laugh

  Last but not least, a good laugh makes everything easier in life as in coding.

What after FAC:

• I will find a job role as developer.
• I will keep on learning.
• I will keep on sharing what I have learned.
• I want to become more involved in education and with my Instagram platform share some educational content.
• I will work on an open-source project.