Ashley Sands

Senior Instructional Associate

Online

Ashley Sands is a Senior Instructional Associate with a passion for coding. Ashley started her career in education, and after a few years decided to become a student again and learn how to build websites and applications. These days, you can find Ashley working with nonprofits and startups. In her spare time, she enjoys writing, reading, and doing anything crafty.

What is your favorite technical skill to work with on your own projects and why?

My favorite technical skill to work with is JavaScript, especially when I’m using React. It makes it easy to bring ideas to life without getting too bogged down in complexity. There’s a nice balance between structure and creativity, and it’s really satisfying to see how small pieces of code can come together to build something dynamic and interactive.

I love teaching Django because what starts as an easy-to-use framework can quickly become more complex. It allows students to jump in and get a website up and running in a short amount of time, while still offering plenty of room for customization once the basics are in place. That balance makes it really motivating and empowering for students.

The most important thing to me about teaching technical skills is recognizing that each student comes in with a different level of understanding. I do my best to meet students where they are while also making sure they have the tools they need to grasp challenging material or move beyond content that feels too easy for their current level.

My best advice for anyone learning technical skills is to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. There will be times when new information doesn’t make sense right away and feels difficult to grasp, but with continued practice, those concepts will eventually click.

There’s so much we’re capable of doing with even a small amount of knowledge. After learning basic JavaScript, I was able to start exploring other programming languages like Python and C#, which I enjoy using for game development.

WHAT ASHLEY'S STUDENTS ARE SAYING...

"Ashley is a tremendous advocate for the students in my cohort. She constantly provides great ideas for growth and learning in addition to what we are being taught in class."

"Ashley is terrific! She does a great job breaking concepts down piece by piece and explaining things in a way that makes it understandable for people not from a tech background. She is very approachable and willing to take on any question with all of her effort/attention."