This week we would like to welcome Lacey Williams Henschel (@laceynwilliams) as our PyDev of the Week. She is very active with the Django Girls organization. Let’s spend some time getting to know her better!
Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc):
I’m a developer for the University of Texas at Austin, and I have two English degrees. There are a lot of jokes about English degrees not being useful, but I actually feel like I use my degree every day as a developer.
My latest hobby seems to be planning Django and Django Girls events! I’m on the organizing committee for DjangoCon US, and I’m co-organizing Django Girls workshops in Austin and Portland. When I’m not doing that, I love cooking, and I’m taking swimming lessons!
Why did you start using Python?
Honestly, because it’s what I was trained in. I went through an apprenticeship program with the University of Texas, and they taught Python and Django in addition to a mainframe language. (UT is old school.) But I love Python! It’s flexible, powerful, easy to learn, and has great documentation.
What other programming languages do you know and which is your favorite?
I don’t know many other languages, honestly. The one I use most is NATURAL, a mainframe language used at my workplace. (Wikipedia link for the interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATURAL) NATURAL is fun because it’s so different from Python. It’s not object-oriented at all, so switching between the two is challenging and fun.
What projects are you working on now?
Like I said, mostly Django Girls workshops! In terms of coding, I’m working on revamping the learning resources page of the Django Girls page, so we can accept suggestions from our workshop participants and coaches for projects attendees can work on after the workshop is over. I also want to create a funny Twitter bot, because it seems like the “in” thing to do and I think it would be fun.
Which Python libraries are your favorite (core or 3rd party)?
This is a hard question! I’m going to go with a funny one: Emoji. Emoji lets you print emojis to your console, which is amazing. I feel like this library will make an appearance in my Twitter bot, and I’m very excited about it.
You might suspect that I don’t take myself too seriously. You would be right.
Is there anything else you’d like to say?
I really appreciate the support the Python community has given to Django Girls. Being an organizer for this organization is amazing, and feeling the love from the broader community is great, too. Thanks for interviewing me!
Thanks so much!