CATLab Blog

  • CATLab Roots: Kim Shifley

    June 2, 2021
    We at the CATLab are secure in the great growth we have seen in our own program over the years thanks to the people and stories that comprise our “roots” as a student-driven tech center. These veterans and the stories they share make CATLab a nurturing environment. If you were to ask around our offices in Downtown Santa Barbara for someone who represents a root of our CATLab program, Kim Shifley would be one of the first names mentioned.
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  • 6 Tips for Implementing myTrailhead

    May 26, 2021
    From its very beginning, the CATLab has been all about creating bespoke solutions—so why should our training be any different? Last week, we explored how myTrailhead training has enabled our team to get up and running faster than ever. Now it’s time to take a peek behind the scenes and look at how we built our own content within this customizable platform.
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  • How We Launched Our Team in Record Time with myTrailhead

    May 25, 2021
    One of the unique features of our program this summer is the way we’ve adopted myTrailhead, Salesforce’s customizable training platform. Through myTrailhead, we’ve been able to create a standard onboarding process that’s easy for new developers to follow. By the team’s fourth day of work, our new developers already felt like they’d been able to take the training wheels off and start pushing towards real progress.
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  • 3 Things We Created and Learned in Summer 2020

    August 19, 2020

    After 15 weeks of coding and creating, blogging and bug-fixing, we’ve finally come to the end of the summer. Looking back at our successes, we’re struck by not only the concrete things we’ve accomplished but also the lessons we’ve learned. Through our work this summer, we’ve come to see the importance of knowing who our work is for, sharing our stories, and having a team mindset. In short, we do our best when we’re focused on helping others.

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  • The Work of Authentic Inclusion: Reflections from Our Director

    August 11, 2020
    As we reflect on what we’ve learned and accomplished this summer, we asked our director, Zak, to share his thoughts on leading a team through this tumultuous time. In “both technical and thematic challenges,” in both coding and conversations, Zak sees himself as the facilitator rather than the focus, staying out of the spotlight and empowering others to take center stage.
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