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writing
My summer experience working with the software team at MetaBronx
Technology and learning
My summer at MetaBronx
This summer, through the Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), I worked at MetaBronx.
On my first day, when I arrived at the worksite, I was excited and nervous. But my nervousness slightly eased up after seeing others my age.
The staff in charge was one of the co-founders of MetaBronx. He told us what we were going to do for the next six weeks of summer. Other older youths were team leaders or kinda like mentors. To put us in individual teams, they gave us a survey to determine where to assign us.
I was placed on the software team based on my interests. Since I had absolutely no experience in software, everything felt overwhelming. Thankfully, because my teammates and I were entirely new to this field, we did not write code, but we had a chance to participate in the project. Mainly, our role was active learning and observation. Since we didn't fully learn coding, we didn't participate in that part of the process. We were given a link to a website where we could learn the basic coding languages. This was so we could understand what the other older youths, who were more experienced than we were, were doing in the project.
I spent my weeks attending online meetings, where I observed what my team leader and others were doing. For instance, I watched my team leader and another older youth work directly on fixing bugs and resolving a few errors on The Glass Files website. This experience taught me that software development requires a lot of collaboration and patience. Even though I was just observing, watching the team solve coding problems helped me understand how real tech projects come together.
I am grateful for the mentorship and experience I received at MetaBronx.
On my first day, when I arrived at the worksite, I was excited and nervous. But my nervousness slightly eased up after seeing others my age.
The staff in charge was one of the co-founders of MetaBronx. He told us what we were going to do for the next six weeks of summer. Other older youths were team leaders or kinda like mentors. To put us in individual teams, they gave us a survey to determine where to assign us.
I was placed on the software team based on my interests. Since I had absolutely no experience in software, everything felt overwhelming. Thankfully, because my teammates and I were entirely new to this field, we did not write code, but we had a chance to participate in the project. Mainly, our role was active learning and observation. Since we didn't fully learn coding, we didn't participate in that part of the process. We were given a link to a website where we could learn the basic coding languages. This was so we could understand what the other older youths, who were more experienced than we were, were doing in the project.
I spent my weeks attending online meetings, where I observed what my team leader and others were doing. For instance, I watched my team leader and another older youth work directly on fixing bugs and resolving a few errors on The Glass Files website. This experience taught me that software development requires a lot of collaboration and patience. Even though I was just observing, watching the team solve coding problems helped me understand how real tech projects come together.
I am grateful for the mentorship and experience I received at MetaBronx.
South Bronx
Summer 2026
Adiba Akanda
photograph by Philip Shearer, taken at the Bronx Innovation Center
Innovation Summer 2026 | writing | MetaBronx | SYEP | software | teamwork | working | Summer 2026 | coding | Bronx
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