Supporting Mexico's Tech Talent at Hack Puebla

Employees in Ellucian's Puebla office helped to educate and inspire Mexico's tech talent at the annual Hack Puebla event held on the Puebla campus of Tecnológico de Monterrey (Tec) in June.

Around 100 traditional-age college students — many of whom attend Tec — spent two days learning and networking with members of the Ellucian team and working on a team-based software design challenge, with prizes totaling nearly 20,000 MX$ (more than $1,100 USD). This was the first year Ellucian has participated in Hack Puebla, which is hosted by Tec, an Ellucian customer.

"Students got the opportunity to work on something exciting and challenging in teams," he said. "They experienced something that they can't plan in advance, so they had to be creative about solutions."

Another priority for Ellucian employees at Hack Puebla was to highlight the importance of accessibility in software design. Program Manager Edith Varela provided participants with industry-standard guidelines and best practices on building accessible products and services, and explored elements like accessible headings, colors, and text.

The hackathon also taught technical sessions on how to use Figma, a widely used interface design platform. Experience Designer Alejandro Gallardo, who led this portion of the event, said this supported Varela's accessibility sessions and helped build community among participants.

"The platform is big, so they have this community and people start to share ideas, so it's super helpful," Gallardo said.

Castillo said that beyond the competition, participants connected with Ellucian employees and learned about the growing technology landscape in Mexico. He noted that some attendees have since secured internships with the company.

Learn more about Hack Puebla at https://hackpuebla.tech/.