Hadiyah Mujhid is the instructor of Hackbright Academy’s Front-End Web Development course. She worked at Lockheed Martin for 11 years as a software engineer before leaving to start her own business four years ago to build software applications for start ups and nonprofits. Hadiyah co-founded Black Founders, which is dedicated to increasing the number of successful black entrepreneurs in tech. The more you read about her, the more inspired you'll get...

How did you get into software engineering?

In high school, my uncle had a consulting company and I would work with him during the summer building websites. When pre-med wasn't working out for me, I decided to pursue software engineering!

Since starting your own tech business, what has been your favorite project to work on?

That’s a hard one. I love all my projects since I get to choose them! But if I had to choose, I would say one of my current clients - Hack the Hood. It's a nonprofit that runs a summer bootcamp where they teach low income youth web technologies. They've recently have been evaluating the impact of their social programs and I get to help build the software to measure that.

You lead an inspiring life - what inspires YOU?

Women. There are a lot of great women out there in terms of overcoming a lot of obstacles that they might have in their path. I have seen so many women not just surviving but thriving.

What brought you to Hackbright?

I really enjoy teaching, especially to underrepresented communities - so Hackbright was a natural fit!

What kinds of skills will students learn when they take Hackbright's Front-End Web Development class with you?

Students will learn HTML, CSS, and Javascript. They will also learn client-side applications and how to use current tools that developers now use like Git, Sublime, Bootstrap, and how to integrate APIs on websites. In addition to these skills, students will also have resources on how to learn a new programming language, a new technology, and they also get immersed in a great community. It's not just a class. You will be surrounded by inspiring, like-minded women.

One of your lectures was called, "We Heart Queen Bey" - What did that entail? It was an exercise on responsive web! We had a Beyoncé animated gif site - when you viewed it from your phone, you couldn't see the images changing. So the exercise was to make the site responsive so that if you viewed it from your mobile device, you could see all the animated gifs of Beyoncé.

That sounds entertaining! What else do you do to keep Front-End learning fun?

I prioritize tasks that would be of interest to the students. I make sure the material is relevant in terms of tasks that are related to what developers have to work on today.

What kinds of projects do your students typically work on?

Some students have created interactive portfolio sites. Others have built applications to show current news trends using Storify and Twitter APIs.  Another student of mine built a game using PhysicsJS.

What advice would you give to someone who’s thinking about taking your class?

Take it! If you have any doubts, come to an info session or email our team at part-time@hackbrightacademy.com. At a minimum, you are going to gain an extremely useful and marketable skill set. But from my perspective, my ultimate goal is to see you gain the skills needed to embark on a new career, should you choose.

Hadiyah is teaching Hackbright's upcoming  Front-End Web Development Part-Time Course, which begins in August. Enrollment deadline is July 27th.