Ultimate Medical Academy Teams Up with The Iron Yard
June 16, 2017, Tampa, Fla. – Today, two graduates of The Iron Yard, and now employees of Ultimate Medical Academy, will share their stories and tech journey at Demo Day, the culmination of their intensive training at The Iron Yard, to an audience of tech companies, engineers, and supporters of the local tech community.
Sherry Hall and Christa Hegedus graduated from The Iron Yard in February 2017 and were hired shortly after graduation by Ultimate Medical Academy as junior applications developers. Headquartered in Tampa, Florida and founded in 1994, the nonprofit educational institution has more than 40,000 alumni and offers content-rich, interactive online courses to almost 14,000 students as well as hands-on training to hundreds of students.
Both Hall and Hegedus were college graduates but were not achieving their career goals. This led each of them to pursue a change in their career planning. After much research, they both found that The Iron Yard was the best fit for them to pursue their dreams.
“One day I decided to go back to what I really loved – programming,” Hall reflected. “I already had a degree in computer science, and a traditional college was way too slow for my purposes, so I started researching alternatives. The Iron Yard was just starting a course in C#/.NET, they were relatively close to my home, and they received positive reviews.”
Hegedus explained, “I always wanted to be in tech, but I didn’t want to do it as a salesperson. I wanted to build a technical skill set. I had all of these visions in my head, but didn’t have the hands for drawing or painting. Learning to code, I could design and build anything I could think of.”
Hall and Hegedus excelled at The Iron Yard, and the experience and career training they received there now goes beyond their jobs at Ultimate Medical Academy. The IT professionals will have the chance tomorrow to interact with the local tech community and share their knowledge and experience to inspire others to pursue careers in IT.
“It was a pleasure having both ladies in our program. Each came from different backgrounds but both had the passion, determination, and growth mindset to pursue their dream,” said Toni Warren, campus director for St. Petersburg and Tampa. “We knew they would be hired quickly and both were open to moving anywhere in the country. We are thrilled that Ultimate Medical Academy kept them local and provided them with a successful environment to progress in their career as junior developers.”
Ultimate Medical Academy Chief Information Officer Jeremy Wilson said, “Sherry and Christa have shown tremendous talent since joining Ultimate Medical Academy. It’s a true testament to The Iron Yard and what they teach their students. Their programs and courses provide IT students with the necessary skills to be successful in their careers. They make things challenging and teach the students to be resourceful. We look forward to hiring more graduates of The Iron Yard in the future.”
Hall and Hegedus’ hard work and dedication has paid off, and they look forward to mentoring others who are considering a career change to coding and IT. As they both said, “it’s never too late to do something that you love.”
ABOUT THE IRON YARD:
The Iron Yard offers full-time and part-time web development courses in person, online and through corporate training programs across the U.S. Our team strives to create real, lasting change for people, companies and communities by equipping a diverse workforce with 21st century digital skills. For more information, visit https://www.theironyard.com/.
