Valery MONGES

This is just the beginning 🥳

I am deeply happy and proud to celebrate the 10 years of @holbertonschool TL, DR What began with a one San Francisco cohort, has grown worldwide across Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. @42Krp current CEO, and all the Holberton partners are doing an incredible job to expand the Holberton School Network into more countries. 🌎 Today Holberton is: ↳ A disruptive model with no teacher, in a peer-learning and project based environment, ↳ 36 campuses worldwide, ↳ Thousands of students trained to be the most ambitious software engineer, ↳ Offering Programs focusing on what’s best on the market: FullStack Web development, AR/VR, Machine Learning, Low Level and Algorithms, Front-End Back-End, Cybersecurity, Cobol and GenAI and more to come in the future, ↳ Millions of line of codes, ↳ A determination to always go further in supporting talent. Such an amazing success and the continuity of what was one idea, one day, 10 years ago… How It All Began Let’s take a step back now and let’s come back in 2015 when my husband, @jbarbier , came home with that signature sparkle in his eye when he has a new idea (or more like the visualisation of entering the matrix for the first time) and said “we’re going to build a school to train the best software engineers with no teachers, no up-front tuition, Project and Peer-learning based. (I would learn fast enough on a compliance stand-point and for those who knew the usa market at that time, that we were indeed very - too much - disruptive!) When I started to be involved, I was a young mom of a 7 months old baby and was mourning my father who just passed away. While I was navigating this intense period, I started to help him and was “enrolled” to test the application process (What the heck is a “Terminal”?!). I never left. 2 months later, from that small team of four, joined shortly after by @guillaumesalva aka “chef” aka “the checker master” and a bit later @cyrjulien aka “the Chief of Design”. I worked on “anything related to everything” from finance, legal, ops, HR, compliance to running the SF campus, you name it. And as we were building the company, increasing the team and expanding worldwide, I’ve lived every high and low of that adventure: 💻 There was the excitement of our first 30 students cohort transforming them from “what is C++?” through “THE checker” to finally Apple, Google and Tesla hires! 💸 The rush funding rounds with a Series B celebration (and this incredible presentation to our investors where Julien showed them a slide “The Future of Education is Onsite”) just before the pandemic hit (literally a few weeks before!). ⚖️ The regulatory battle with BPPE (#compliance). 😷 The pivot in 48h from fully on site to fully online when the pandemic hit. 😔 The hard decision and the layoffs 🚀 The global expansion starting with Colombia, Connecticut, Tulsa campuses and the joy when our students were able to find life-changing jobs. 🌍 Finally the acquisition from ALX Africa which shaped the future of thousands of African young students. In the meantime, while we were defying the odds through it all, our investors and advisors believed in us and stood by us - what an incredible support we had. At the same time, our personal lives moved crazy fast as well. We welcomed our first child, while launching Holberton and then welcomed baby number two, 2 years later. That’s why Holberton has such a special place for me, it was more than a job; it was completely part of our life. During that time and for 7 years, I witnessed life as both the wife of a CEO and entrepreneur and “the co-founder in the shadow” while building Holberton. On the first part, I know the downside and upside of it, the thousands of questions, the high pressure, the incredible resilience, the hard decision, the relief when the funds hit the bank account, the celebration when our students were getting a job. We navigated the highs and lows together, him at the front line as CEO while I supported behind the scenes, together while raising our children. This journey shaped us into a deep and trustful team, balancing the demands of a startup with family life. I'm so proud of what we built together from that day he came home with that crazy idea and never gave up on it. Where We Are Now In 2022, Holberton evolved. The franchises were acquired by @42Krp and the platform and technology were acquired by @alx_africa. Today while the @holbertonschool Network is expanding, with @facesofalxse, the Holberton’s engine powers ambitious software engineering students and since that time 1.29 million learners have been able to access it. I see a lot of posts of graduate students finding jobs thanks to Holberton, and I couldn’t be more proud. The scale of impact is also now extended through an incredible network of alumni, giving back to the community and creating such high value. One of these incredible grads is @_MariemEhab with whom I work everyday building @OctoPrepAI to help prep job seekers with interviews. So to every student who trusted us, every member of the Holberton team who joined us in this adventure, to every mentor and investor who stayed along the way, THANK YOU ✨ Happy 10th anniversary, @holbertonschool ! Let’s keep changing lives, to the next million learners, the next pivot, and the next incredible adventure! @holbertonschool @HolbertonFRA @HolbertonPeru @holbertonspr @HolbertonTUN @HolbertonALB @HolbertonECU @HolbertonSSA @holbertonuy @HolbertonLSO @HolbertonSPAIN