The Full Stack and then some.

When I first arrived in Lisbon for the Full Stack Coding program this summer, I didn’t really know what to expect. From what was on the website, I knew that I was going to learn a lot, but I didn’t know how the teacher was going to instruct the students. It certainly seemed like a lot of material to cover in a short amount of time.

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John Nydam, iXperience Lisbon 2019

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Finishing up my summer with iXperience, I can confidently say that this was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. Before attending the program, I’ve always been interested in learning how mobile applications and websites work. More importantly, I’ve always been interested in learning how to build my own web apps.

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By the end of the first two weeks, I was not only able to build a website and mobile application from scratch but also a backend API and database. I was also able to fully integrate the API and database with the mobile app and website I had just created.

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I was honestly surprised by how much I had learned in those two weeks. One of the things that makes iXperience so unique is that it isn’t just a study abroad program. Students are also placed into an internship where they are able to apply what they learned in class as well as gain practical experience. I believe this is what makes iXperience such an enriching experience — the fact that you are continually learning new material in the class as well as during the internship. 

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There is so much to learn in the field of full stack development, and I think that the Full Stack program at iXperience offers an extraordinarily comprehensive introduction. For example, at the beginning of the third week when students start their internships, most projects require that the interns learn a completely different framework other than the one they were using during the first two weeks of class. Even though it was initially challenging to get used to working with a new framework, I nevertheless felt prepared to adjust to this change given the knowledge about full stack I had gained in the first two weeks. By the end of the entire program, not only did I become comfortable using the framework we learned for the final project, but I also learned an additional framework through my internship work. 

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Overall, my time working in Lisbon this summer has been incredibly valuable. I would recommend the full stack program to anyone who is motivated and wants to learn more about app development.