My first experience with the IT camps was in 2015, when my father drew my attention to the offer to learn how to program web pages during the holidays. I liked this idea immediately, especially since no computer science lessons were offered in my school for my grade. Reinforced by my experience with the First Lego League, I asked my parents to enroll in the course without long hesitation.
I hadn't had any knowledge of programming yet, but by the good explanations and helpful support of the coaches, I learned quickly in the course. I liked a lot that I could pick my topic myself, but also never felt lost and always as part of a team. So, my question to my parents right after the week is easy to understand:
“Can I attend the advanced course next summer?"
Asked and done: I attended the next IT-Camp course the following year. Again, I liked this so much that at the end of the week, I repeated the request to my parents to take another course. Here’s how I attended the game programming course the following year.
Attending the courses didn’t feel like school for me, although I learned a lot of new things in every course week and although the course days were usually longer than my school days. This was not only due to the topics and atmosphere in the IT-Camp, the great sports activities, and the delicious food in the SAP cafeteria, but also and above all, to the junior coaches. Unlike the teachers at school, they were only a few years older than me, were active, interested and always helpful as soon as I had a question.
When I got the opportunity to join the coaching team in 2018 and become a junior coach, the joy about it was correspondingly great of course. Now, after a total of four one-week IT-Camp courses as a participant, I was able to turn the perspective and pass my knowledge on to the younger ones.
I got completely new insights and didn’t have to wait for the first day of the course to get off the ground, as the planning and organization starts much earlier. Fortunately, this wasn’t a big problem, as I always got support from the other coaches, and especially from Claudia who supported not only during the courses, but spent many tips. Continuous exchange in all kinds of ways and channels happened in preparation and follow-up as well. Thanks to this help, I was able to focus entirely on the course and teaching topics . If something went wrong or I found a problem, I could always reach out to someone from the team in a timely manner. It was always a pleasant and helpful atmosphere that went beyond the “classic working team”. That’s how many friendships developed that I’m taking from the IT-Camps.
When the next step was to decide how to proceed after graduation, the focus was first on a full-time study.
Unlike my parents, I wasn’t fully convinced of this idea. I had a desire to make practical experience in learning in addition to the theory and felt that a dual study was better suited to me. With my experience at the IT-Camps, I already had an impression of working life at SAP, and when I was thinking about it, I became
increasingly aware that I would like to be part of this great community. At the end of October 2020, I then decided to apply for a dual study in business information technology at SAP and applied for this.
Since beginning of September 2021 I am proud to be „a full member of the SAP family“ after onboarding the vocational education department.
With my experience from the IT-Camps, I can now not only look back on a great time, but also look forward to create many more great experiences and an instructive time at SAP.
I would like to thank my team for that, and especially Claudia Fürst. You've made this journey possible for me and helped me with all my activities.
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