Mandy Arola

Mandy has been following developers & tech companies at meetups since 2016. She is NSS’s chief content wrangler, a.k.a. marketing manager. When she’s not writing blogs, managing social media, pestering instructors & graduates for content, or attending meetups, you can find her traveling the world or at home with her beloved dog Lola.
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Recent Posts

Software Developers Run on Coffee | Graduate Spotlight
Apr 11, 2018
Prior to NSS, Dre Randaci was the head of operations for an e-commerce startup selling imported Italian coffee equipment in the southeast. He traveled around the region consulting with clients who were opening cafes, designing their bar flow, determining equipment needs, and keeping things organized in the process. He enjoyed his job, but there wasn’t much room for growth. So he decided to explore software development. Read More
Are Vector-Borne Diseases Becoming More Prevalent? | Discovery Through Data
Apr 10, 2018
Have you thought about how changes in our climate might impact the spread of disease? With his background in biology and interest in global health and the climate, Sanjay Mishra wanted to know if the expanding geography of warmer seasons is allowing the vector population (mosquitoes, ticks, flies) to grow more rapidly, and thus increasing the rate of vector-borne diseases, such as West Nile Virus, Dengue, and Zika, or causing them to occur in new regions. Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

The Desire to Help Others And Be Creative Lead To Software Development | Graduate Spotlight
Apr 5, 2018
Kristen Norris was working for a non-profit when she decided to make a career change. Software development felt like a great way to create things and continue to help others. Learn about Kristen's journey at NSS and the capstones she built. Read More

Topics: Student Stories

Is There An Achievement Gap Based on School Funding? | Discovery Through Data
Apr 3, 2018
Intrigued by Nashville’s significant economic growth in recent years and increased accessibility of data from the State of Tennessee, Paulo Martinez wanted to see if there was a correlation between the allocation of financial resources to school districts and educational outcomes, using ACT scores. Is the recent economic growth impacting the achievement gap in Tennessee? And is this increased revenue being distributed equally across school districts? Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

When Was The Golden Age For Video Games? | Discovery Through Data
Mar 29, 2018
Justin Rothbart has fond memories of his excited anticipation as the release date for a new video game approached. Video games allow him to connect to his youth, with some of his favorite games and series originating in the late 90’s. For his mid-course project in our data science bootcamp, he wanted to see if his view of video games from the late 90’s being the best matched the views of other video game fans. Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

Cohort 22 Wraps Up Six Months With A Busy Demo Day
Mar 27, 2018
On Friday, we graduated our latest class of full stack C#/.NET developers. With over 65 hiring managers, in-house recruiters, developers, and alumni stopping by, our graduates showcased their capstones for four hours non-stop. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Volunteer For Hack For The Community
Mar 22, 2018
In just three weeks, Nashville Software School and Nashville Technology Council will be buzzing with volunteers for HCA Foundation’s Hack For The Community. The 36 hour hackathon will bring together software developers and designers from across Nashville, including some of our students and alumni. Teams will be solving problems for over 20 local non-profits. Read More

Topics: Get Involved

Which Country Has Been Most Successful In The Olympic Games? | Discovery Through Data
Mar 20, 2018
The Olympic Games bring excitement to world competition. Athletes from nations around the world gather together to celebrate achievement and to push the human body to do things never thought possible before. While the Olympic Games are so much more than medals, the medals can tell us a lot about the history of the Games. Inspired by the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea, Brandon Sanders created a Shiny app, Exploring Summer Olympic Data, 1896 - 2008, to navigate data collected for the last 112 years of Olympic events. Read More

Topics: Analytics + Data Science

How To Pay For a Nashville Software School Bootcamp
Mar 13, 2018
So you’ve decided to make a career transition. You’ve done your research and have decided that attending a bootcamp is the best way for you to learn the craft of software development or the skills required for data science. You’re considering Nashville Software School, but wonder, “how do I pay for it?” As the first non-profit coding bootcamp in the US, we strive to keep our bootcamps within financial reach of all who apply. Read More

Topics: News

Oh, The Things You'll Learn | Matthew McCord - Cohort 16
Mar 1, 2018
It has been almost a year since Matthew McCord graduated from NSS as a part of Cohort 16. Ten months into his first tech job at Bernard Health as a full stack developer, Matthew hasn’t stopped learning. Through support on the job and exploring his own interests in game development, he has grown a lot as a developer. Read More

Topics: Alumni, Learning