InceptionU students awarded $1,000 bursary from Shane Fast, co-founder of Athennian

Two full-stack development students at Calgary’s InceptionU have each received a $1,000 bursary from Athennian, a legal software company founded in Calgary.

The InceptionU Educational Foundation recently awarded the bursary to Tosin Kasaba and Maggie Chew. The bursaries were presented by Athennian co-founder Shane Fast.

The purpose of the bursary is to contribute financially to the learning of up-and-coming top tech talent and spotlight the journey they have pursued over the past few months.

InceptionU is a private, non-profit education organization building learning solutions to address the skills gaps in the digital economy.

Fast said Kasaba and Chew demonstrated in their application that they are diligent builders, focused creatives and ambitious learners. This aligns with the values sought out by Athennian when looking to collaborate with new developers in the tech ecosystem.

“Their personalities really came through in their written responses and then when I had the chance to meet them, I could immediately see the passion and interest they have for the tech space and the investment they’ve made in their own growth,” said Fast of the bursary recipients.

“It’s really encouraging and makes me feel like the work that I’m doing here at InceptionU is really impactful,” said Chew of the award. “Right now, being a student, every little bit helps. Getting to know Shane and learning about Athennian has been amazing, especially as we set out to find jobs once the program is finished.”

“As we are working on ourselves, it’s nice that there are people out there supporting you and helping you with this process,” added Kasaba. “It’s inspiring to know that with hard work you can achieve anything. I really appreciate this opportunity.”

InceptionU is currently offering a six-month full-time full stack developer program to teach people in-demand skills to do back-end coding work and front-end design work.

The programs are designed to build competencies individuals need for the future of work. Programs are immersive, discovery-driven, and experience-based in an environment that is active, challenging, and supportive. InceptionU says the programming is different from many traditional technical programs as it integrates a specific set of complementary non-technical skills such as; design thinking, entrepreneurial thinking, critical thinking, systems thinking, creative, user experience, and more, to build the skills the workforce needs to thrive in a technology-enabled future.

“On a personal level, I have worked closely with InceptionU folks in the past and witnessed the growth of the organization,” Fast explained in a recent interview on Inception U’s website. “From what I’ve seen, their team is dedicated, energetic, and highly engaged in the community. So the selection came naturally when the desire came to mind to build this partnership.”

When asked what type of people Athennian is looking for, Fast replied: “Ultimately, the type of people who are poised to make a large impact. The types of people who can figure out how to navigate a tricky project and then figure out the next step to take, but also know how to continually hone their skills and carefully weigh the pros and cons of a solution. The values are intended to be a bit paradoxical when you drill into them. For example, being ‘Focused’ while being ‘Creative’ is a fine line to walk, and sometimes you might need to be more focused while at other times a more creative approach is required. In other words, someone with a nice full toolbox, but also knows which tool is most appropriate to use at a given time.”