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

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

From Traditional Education To Hands-On Learning | Graduate Spotlight
Feb 15, 2018
A recent high school graduate, a recent college graduate, and a teacher...these three Cohort 21 graduates decided to give hands-on learning a try. Malcolm wanted to pursue his new-found passion, Fang wanted to combine his biomedical engineering skills with the logic and creativity of coding, and Matt wanted to leave teaching and pursue a career where he could still make a difference. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Exploring Space Through Data With NASA Datanauts
Feb 14, 2018
When you think of NASA, you probably think of the space race, walking on the moon, or a potential mission to Mars. NASA is built on exploration and as a result of that, they have collected lots and lots of data. They currently have over 39,000 data sets! With all of this data and declining funding, NASA is turning to the community to find answers through Datanauts. Read More

Topics: Community, Analytics + Data Science

Making A Difference Through Development | Graduate Spotlight
Feb 9, 2018
This week we meet two cohort 21 graduates, Dan Certa and Dr. Teresa Vasquez. Both created capstones that make life a little easier for their users, whether it’s a busy parent or an adult with autism. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Global Game Jam Sparks Creativity
Feb 6, 2018
During the last weekend of January teams from around the world gathered for the annual Global Game Jam (GGJ), a 48-hour game hackathon. This year’s theme was “Transmission.” Over 42,000 jammers made 8,600 games at 800 sites in over 100 countries! In Nashville, over 100 game fans gathered to imagine, design, and build 25 different games. Several NSS students and alumni participated in the fun-filled weekend. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Community

Learning The Craft of Full Stack Development | Graduate Spotlight
Jan 30, 2018
The path to a career in web development is different for everyone. Today we talk with two graduates from Evening Cohort 5. Sharon Smith brought her career full circle and Heather Thacker was looking for a new challenge. They spent a year together with their classmates learning the craft of full stack software development. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Community Minded | Graduate Spotlight
Jan 25, 2018
I’m excited to bring you another round of graduate spotlights for the next few weeks! We graduated 40 new developers this month and they all have their own unique stories about what brought them to NSS, the things they learned, the capstones they created, and their goals for the future. This week we talk to three alumni from Cohort 21 who all came from careers where they served their community or country. Read More

Topics: Student Stories, Hiring?

Find Your Place In Technology | Megan Freeman - Cohort 9
Jan 22, 2018
Megan Freeman went through NSS’s web development bootcamp as a part of Cohort 9. She left a career in business dentistry to purse software development. Her six months at NSS laid the groundwork for her first job in tech by exposing Megan to current technologies. This made it easier for her to go deeper and learn more on the job. Read More

Topics: Alumni, Student Stories