App Development Club holds startup speaker event

Sabrina Zhu

Students attend Evan You’s speaker event, where he discussed his experience opening a start-up company. You founded Vue.js, which strives to make website designing and building more accessible.

by Rachel Ning, TALON Organizations Editor

Harker’s App Development Club hosted Evan You, founder of software startup company Vue.js on Feb. 8 after school at 3:30 p.m. in club advisor and upper school computer science teacher Anu Datar’s classroom.

The club’s leaders invited You to speak to club members because many students could relate to his experience of balancing a job while trying to start up his company. This idea could resonate with students, as the idea of balancing different responsibilities such as school work and also developing something complex like an app can be seen as a struggle. 

“He had a really inspiring journey because he was still in his job, and that’s something a lot of Harker students can relate to like trying to balance school and creating apps and stuff like that, so learning about how he was able to do that at the same time was interesting,” vice president Sasha Masson (10) said.

Vue.js strives towards creating a framework for a frontend on any website to make it more lightweight and enable modifying different areas of the website without going to the backend. You not only spoke about his process in creating this company but also why he decided to quit his previous job at Google a couple years ago in order to pursue his passion and how he believed it has benefited him in the long run. As he continues to work for himself, You feels as though he has been able to work on something he continues to stay committed to. 

Datar believes this was an important experience for anyone who aspires to develop apps as it shows how imperative it is to be passionate about your project and willing to put in the work as well.

“It’s very easy for my students to get frustrated when things take longer, and although I encourage them to be patient, I think once in a while it’s important to be like ‘Stop, I’m just going to change tracks into something that is going to give me happiness and gratification,’ which builds more patience for better results,” Datar said.

Aarav Borthakur (9) listens to Evan You’s presentation during App Development Club’s speaker event on Feb. 8. Club members went to club adviser and upper school computer science teacher Anu Datar’s room for the virtual meeting. (Sabrina Zhu)