~/programs/hack-your-own
Archive · Summer 2020

Hack Your Own

A CS internship experience for the summer the internships disappeared.
12-week cohortteam-basedopen source

About

In the spring of 2020, tens of thousands of Computer Science internships were canceled almost overnight as the pandemic shut down hiring across the industry. Self-directed projects could fill some of the gap, but not the part that makes an internship work: mentorship, feedback, and a team. Hack Your Own existed for one summer to add that missing dimension.

Over 12 weeks, students designed and built open-source projects in small mentored teams, guided by senior engineers and PMs from major US tech companies. Think of it as an intensive summer senior design course, supported by industry advisors, that ran when nothing else could.

Our Goal

Hack Your Own welcomed CS students and early-career professionals who wanted to keep building during the summer their internships fell through. The mission was simple: connect emerging tech talent through a three-month, team-based intensive program — peer learning, professional development, mentorship, and well-scoped projects. The cohort ran from June 1 to August 21, 2020.

Who we are

The team was a mix of senior developers, tech leads, and PMs from major US companies who volunteered their evenings and weekends to scope cohorts, design curriculum, run intake, and mentor student teams. The staff page lists everyone who showed up.

Program Outcomes

Hack Your Own ran a single 12-week cohort in the summer of 2020. What it produced:

  • Operating period: April 2020 – October 2020 (cohort: June 1 – August 21, 2020)
  • Reach: 600+ students trained in product management, software development, and solution architecture
  • Project teams: ~20 mentored student project teams shipping cloud-native capstone projects on the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node) with AWS
  • Staff: 15+ volunteer staff coordinating program management, community, and mentor matching
  • Mentor network: industry mentors from major US tech companies
  • Alumni outcomes: participants went on to roles at organizations including Salesforce, Google, and other top-tier tech companies

Verifying participation:Hiring managers, recruiters, or background-check services who need to verify someone's participation in the program can email camille@hackyourown.org. The program founder maintains the original cohort records and will confirm participation, role, and dates on request.