LEARN Academy: Where It All Started
Student (May-Aug 2020) • Instructor (2021-2023) • Lead Instructor (Jan 2022)
The Career Transition
In May 2020, during the COVID lockdown, I made a decision: I was going to leave Philz Coffee and transition into tech. I enrolled at LEARN Academy as a student, and four months later I graduated with full-stack development skills.
By 2021, I was back—this time as an instructor. On January 1, 2022, I became a Lead Instructor. Over three years, I taught 170+ students to code, but more importantly, I taught them how to think like engineers and communicate technical concepts clearly.
What I Learned from Teaching
- <strong>Translating Complexity:</strong> Teaching forced me to understand concepts deeply enough to explain them simply. This skill now helps me bridge engineers, clinicians, and business stakeholders.
- <strong>Pattern Recognition:</strong> Seeing 170+ students learn to code taught me to identify common misconceptions and design solutions that prevent confusion.
- <strong>Documentation Matters:</strong> Students couldn't succeed without clear documentation. Now I write specs that engineers can implement without constant clarification.
- <strong>Mentorship & Leadership:</strong> Managing cohorts, coordinating with instructors, and supporting students built leadership skills that translate directly to cross-functional product teams.
The AI Prediction (2022)
A Prediction That Aged Well
As Lead Instructor starting January 2022, I made a controversial choice: I emphasized pseudocode, problem-solving, and technical communication over syntax memorization. My reasoning? I believed AI would make hand-coding obsolete within five years.
In 2022, this was a bold claim. GitHub Copilot had just launched, but most developers dismissed AI as a novelty. I disagreed. I saw the trajectory and bet that the most valuable skill wouldn't be writing code—it would be knowing what code to write and how to communicate technical requirements.
Three years later, in 2025, Claude Code, Cursor, and AI-powered development tools are proving that prediction right. The students who learned to think algorithmically and explain problems clearly have a massive advantage over those who just memorized syntax.
The Technical Foundation
Teaching full-stack development meant staying current with modern web technologies. I taught:
- React, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails
- Database design and SQL
- API integration and RESTful architecture
- Git, GitHub, deployment workflows
- Testing, debugging, and problem-solving methodologies
This technical foundation became essential when I moved into healthcare engineering and product management. I can read code, understand data models, and write implementable specs because I taught these concepts for three years.
Impact
- 👨 🎓 Students Trained: 170+ developers across 12 cohorts
- 🎯 Success Rate: 85%+ graduation rate
- 💼 Career Outcomes: Students placed at Microsoft, Amazon, startups
- 🌟 Personal Growth: Discovered passion for technical leadership and mentorship
Why This Matters
Teaching gave me superpowers for product management: I can explain technical complexity to non-technical stakeholders, write clear documentation, mentor engineers, and design solutions that account for how people actually think and work.
Everything I do in product management traces back to lessons learned in the classroom. Technical depth + communication skills + empathy for learners = effective product leadership.