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Mentors and Judges

Because CodeDay is focused on exploration, having fun, and self-driven learning, finding lots of mentors is a lower priority than for many events, and because there are no real prizes, the same is true for judges. That said, finding at least a few judges and mentors is something we ask organizers to do in order to somewhat improve the attendee experience.

The Role of Mentors

At CodeDay, mentors:

  • Meet students, learn about students' interests, and talk about their own experiences in the programming industry.
  • Help students solve problems through questioning (while avoiding giving direct answers).
  • Occasionally, run workshops.

Mentors are there to help students continue their self-exploration, not to provide direct answers to programming questions, so it's often the case that less-experienced programmers make better mentors than more-experienced ones with less "people" skills. Mentors can also become life-long contacts for students who attend our events.

The Role of Judges

CodeDay has judges largely so students feel somewhat validated in the end result, and because events where "everyone wins" feel more like events schools put on.

At CodeDay, judges arrive at 9am on Sunday, and try each of the student projects. We call this "pre-judging," and its purpose is to avoid giving awards to the teams with the best presentations (who often put the least work into their actual project).

After pre-judging, judges watch all the presentations, then give out the following awards:

  • Top Overall (think "first place")
  • Best Game (think "second, in the game category")
  • Best App (think "second, in the app category")
  • 0-to-60 ("beginner team which made a lot of progress")
  • Special Awards

(You can choose not to award the 0-to-60 and special awards at smaller events.)

More on the judging procedure is covered in the day-of manual.

Finding Mentors

We recommend you do not actively seek to recruit mentors; there are usually a surplus of interested individuals, so any time you spend could be better used elsewhere. A slight exception is that you should always ask sponsors if they want to bring any mentors.

When someone expresses interest in becoming a mentor, you should evaluate their:

  • Maturity: In our experience, many younger mentors behave unprofessionally at events.
  • *Experience Level: **Mentors should be generally experienced enough to solve problems in languages or frameworks they haven't used.
  • Ability to Teach: Mentors are expected to teach students, which means asking questions and helping students understand key concepts, not just directly answer questions.
  • Tech-Curmudgeon Tendencies: Mentors getting into arguments with students about which programming language is best is neither friendly nor supportive.

Mentors are expected to commit to at least a two-hour shift sometime on Saturday. You can find more information on getting mentors signed up in the "Mentor Management" section.

Finding Judges

You can often build a panel of judges within a week or two by emailing past contacts, even those who weren't able to help. You can use the following email as a template when getting in touch:

Hi [name],

Would you have any interest in being a judge for this upcoming CodeDay, on Sunday, [date of judging] from 9am-noon?

It's pretty low-pressure, you'll get to try the apps/games students made, watch some short presentations, and then give out a few awards. (No prizes, so it's pretty low-pressure.)

I can send over more information; does that sound at all interesting?

Once someone agrees to judge, you can send them the following sheet with more information: http://assets.srnd.org/codeday/judges.pdf (Physical copies for day-of are included in your CodeDay supplies.)

For most events, the only thing you'll need to do is add your mentors or judges to Clear with the appropriate ticket type. We'll automatically:

  • Send them event details and a reminder
  • Let them know what to expect and their expectations
  • Conduct a background check if required
  • (Try to) schedule mentors for a training webinar

Scheduling

When you add a mentor to Clear, we let them know that, unless they hear from you, they are welcome to attend any time from 2pm-midnight for at least two hours. (We find these are the times when mentors can be most useful.)

If you're managing a larger event, you may want to email mentors to schedule a shift. We're currently developing a tool to make this easier, but you can use a Google Sheet in the meantime (similar to the one you can use for scheduling staff).

SRND-Added Judges and Mentors

Some people apply to be a mentor or judge on codeday.org/volunteer, or through their employer (if they're a sponsor). We screen these people, and if they look reasonable, we create tickets for them in Clear.

Because of this, it's super important that you add your mentors and judges to Clear, or we won't know if you have too many.

You can find which mentors/judges were added in the weekly summary emails generated by Clear, or using the Clear integration with your #staff-city channel in Slack.