RWDevCon Student Scholarships: Applications Now Available!

Many of us on the tutorial team started programming early in life, so we’re always happy to do all we can to encourage students to get into programing at a young age.

Today, we are happy to announce some exciting news – we are offering 5 student scholarships for RWDevCon 2016!

The 5 lucky students will win a free ticket to the conference and will get to attend our team-only pre-conference fun day.

Attending RWDevCon 2016 is an amazing opportunity for students – through two days packed full of high quality hands-on tutorials, you’ll bring your iOS development skills up-to-date, learn a ton, and have a blast.

Keep reading to find out who’s eligible, how to apply, and who to thank for this great opportunity!

Eligibility and How To Apply

To be eligible to win, there are three requirements:

• You must be born on or after March 12, 1995 (i.e. you’re 21 years or younger when the conference ends; this is primarily intended for high school or early college students).
• You also must be able to attend the conference and the pre-conference fun day (March 10-12, 2016).
• You must be able to pay for your own travel and hotel expenses (they are not included; the scholarship includes a ticket to the conference and an invitation to the team-only pre-conference fun day only).

To apply, simply:

• Write a tutorial related to iOS or Swift Language development, and post it to your own blog. If you don’t have a blog, I recommend you post it on Medium.
• Then send us an email with a link to your tutorial, a scanned ID that shows your birthday on it, and confirm that you meet the three requirements listed above.

We will choose the authors of the 5 best tutorials as winners, based on writing skills, technical skills, and the “cool factor” of the subject of the tutorial.

Entries are due in a little over a month – January 11, 2016 – so get writing! :]

Introducing the Patrons

The RWDevCon 2016 scholarships are sponsored by 5 generous patrons of the iOS community, who bought a special ticket that included the cost of the student tickets. Along with me, these patrons will be judging the applicants for the scholarships.

I asked each of our patrons to write some advice for students studying programming. Here’s what they had to say:

“When writing a program, it helps if you act as if the program is going to eventually be read, modified or maintained by somebody else. This makes it easier for you if you need to revisit the code after being away from it for a long time.”

“You’ll learn more working with others than in isolation. Learning from someone is great, but also try teaching someone what you’ve learned; whether the subject is programming, cooking, martial arts or anything, you’ll find that you truly understand a topic when you attempt to explain it to someone else, and hear their questions on what you are trying to convey. It’s also a great way to give back to the programming community.”

“Work on things you are passionate about and don’t forget to have fun. Do good things even when not required and you will go far.”

“When you start learning to program, the task may seem impossible. Just remember, the word itself says I’m possible! Make a plan to learn, develop and execute. You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish. :-)”

“The best part about learning programming is that the basic concepts are mostly unchanged for years but; there are always new things being invented. Every few months, you have the opportunity to become the world’s leading expert in something.”

Where To Go From Here?

If you, or a student you know, wants to take advantage of an amazing learning opportunity that will pay some major dividends in life, don’t miss this chance!

Start writing your tutorial now, and send it to us along with a scanned ID and a confirmation that you meet the 3 requirements by January 11, 2016.

We wish the best of luck to all of the applicants, and we look forward to seeing you at RWDevCon 2016!