"I consider myself an admirer of change and an inquiring mind"

I am writing this letter to apply for the Coding School at Social Hackers Academy. I saw an open call for the applications on VICE.

I have always been looking forward to having a career that makes people’s lives more beautiful while making money doing it. My goal has always been to develop my creative and innovative potential and to pursue my dream. I moved to Athens where I concluded my studies in Glass Designing of Kiln Formed Hot Fused Glass and Stained glass techniques prior to my first degree of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art.

After finishing my studies, I created my own art studio in a greek island and later I opened my first showroom in my home town. I was selling my glass artifacts, introducing to the public the concept of colorful art in everyday life and commissioned architectural glass for various applications.

I had the opportunity of building collaborations with art dealers and various tourist shops, in several touristic islands such as Santorini, Mykonos, Paros and Ios, where my artwork was sold successfully. In 2006 I opened my own second showroom in another island. Unfortunately, two years later it was the time were the first signs of the recession were appearing and no other option was left for me than to close my second beautiful shop.

As years came by, the crisis was getting more intense and the private sector was shrinking more and more. In 2014 I ended up working to fulfill my increasing tax payments while my income was decreasing. For all these reasons, I had to close my business, decision that was extremely painful.

As I consider myself an admirer of change and an “inquiring mind” and I knew that sooner or later I had to find an alternative, following other paths beyond glass processing. The rise of internet, the social media interaction, the web applications, the ecommerce and the whole spectrum of digital world, is the field where I want to develop my skills. I am very eager to grab this chance to become a student in your academy.
I want to work hard, connect with people from all over world, travel and explore new cultures. I believe it is never too late to adjust and follow the needs of the era as long as we are committed to our goals.

Being part of the change is the biggest challenge of all and this was a lesson that I learned from one of my idols, Aaron Swartz. His words are so inspiring to me and I share the thought that in less than 20 years from now, artificial intelligence will dominate sectors that are now running by humans, so I need to move forward to that direction.

Ever since I was in high school I have been working with computer operating systems, beginning with DOS, moving later on to Windows XP, Windows 7 Pro and lately with Windows 10. I am an experienced Microsoft Office user and very familiar with a lot free Tools, social medial and many applications. During the past 12 years of my career as a glass designer, I enjoyed the creation process along with my role of a business woman. I am very proud that I was elected president of the division processing of the Chamber of Cyclades, where I was the only woman. I had a wonderful time there and I learned a lot by attending numerous of seminars especially related to online marketing.

I believe the social hackers academy program is perfect for me to study computer science knowledge in a more in-depth and systematic way. Besides, the curriculum is quite parallel to my ambitions as I want to improve myself in website development. More exciting the social hackers academy offers an international learning environment where I can gain the advantage to learn to cooperate with people from different social and cultural backgrounds.

I perceive this opportunity as a significant advancement in my career, since I believe that a future job as a Freelancer or in a Start Up Company can be a good environment to show off my full potential and utilize my skills and knowledge.