# Organizing Hack Prepas, the first high school Hackathon in Mexico — Icalia Labs Blog

> A high school apprentice at Icalia Labs recounts organizing Hack Prepas in 2015, the first high school hackathon in Mexico, from approvals to sponsors.

Pre-AI era · 2015. Written before AI was part of how we build. The fundamentals still hold; tooling and workflow advice may be dated.

Originally published on [Medium](https://medium.com/our-team/organizing-hack-prepas-the-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-f8711ae1261) on March 19, 2015. Lightly edited for clarity.

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# Organizing Hack Prepas, the first high school Hackathon in Mexico

A high school apprentice at Icalia Labs recounts organizing Hack Prepas in 2015, the first high school hackathon in Mexico, from approvals to sponsors.

HM

Hector Morales · Former Apprentice Developer

March 19, 2015 · 6 min read

![Five members of the Devshop student board in matching black polo shirts, arm in arm in a school library](/assets/blog/hack-prepas-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-5.webp)

### A little about my crazy year

Last year was very interesting for me in terms of my general growth as a developer. Although I took my first programming course back in 2013, 2014 is when I was first exposed to hacking in its prime environment. I’m talking about the traditional hackathon, of course. As a high school student, I was fortunate enough to make the acquaintance of one of the most outstanding teachers I’ve ever come across, the co-founder and owner of the company I currently apprentice at.

![Teen in a knit beard beanie holding a handwritten "Will kode 4 food" sign and a paper cup in a library at night](/assets/blog/hack-prepas-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-1.webp) _Our first private hackathon_

Between 2013 and 2014, my teacher, who embodies the phrase “going above and beyond,” took it upon himself to organize a couple of pseudo-hackathons specifically for our computer science class, made up of 15–20 tech-obsessed teens who at first knew nothing about the world of hacking. These hackathons consisted mainly of us trying to solve Caribbean Online Judge problems strictly with Java, and honestly, it went better than expected. Other than that, there were several workshops with some of my teacher’s co-workers, some of whom are now very good friends of mine.

### Hackathon 7

A few months into my 4th semester of high school, my teacher came to the class with an exciting invitation to attend Hackathon 7, the college hackathon organized by students at ITESM, Mexico’s leading university, which my high school branches off of. At first, my friends and I were hesitant, as this hackathon was organized mainly for college students majoring in computer science, and we could barely program in Java. To put it simply, the only reason we were even _allowed_ in was that my teacher knew people involved and there were _technically_ no rules against it (because no one even imagined high school students registering to participate).

![Students in headphones coding on laptops from lounge chairs, with red plastic cups nearby, at Hackathon 7](/assets/blog/hack-prepas-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-2.webp) _Hackathon 7. Photo: Nueva Prensa._

Needless to say, my team and I (5 of us) decided that staying up for over 24 hours coding was well worth the nerves, because we would learn so much about what real hackathons are and what computer science majors do. We participated, staying up all night from Saturday to Sunday, with the exception of one of my friends, who decided to go watch the soccer game (the stadium was within walking distance) that was on that night. Even though we were up all night, we couldn’t finish our product, but that wasn’t exactly unexpected, as we developed it in a language we learned _during_ the hackathon, and we collectively had like a year of programming experience. In fact, what we did develop went way beyond our expectations, and we came to realize the real power of a well-organized hackathon: its creative environment that motivates learning and innovation.

### Our hackathon

After the second private hackathon and Hackathon 7, my teacher and I had a long and serious conversation about the local hacker scene, which, to be honest, left a lot to be desired, especially at the high school level. With that in mind, I rallied a few of my hacker friends, and we set out with the goal of putting together the first official high-school-level hackathon, which eventually became Hack Prepas.

Despite having two semesters left in high school, we decided to put off planning the hackathon until my 5th semester so it would happen in my 6th. Being an IB student, I realized the 5th semester was the heaviest in terms of assessments, so trying to push it into my schedule would compromise the hackathon’s quality, which I was entirely against. It turns out that waiting until the last minute to organize a hackathon with very little support is a big mistake, but thanks to some hard work, we were able to pull everything together and overcome all the obstacles.

### Main challenges and overcoming them

Initially, we sought official recognition of our event from Prepa Tec, our high school, because we planned on using the Learning Commons in the school’s library to host the event. Everything went smoothly, and even better, we were encouraged to start a club, which we now call The Devshop, in order to legitimize our organization within the school and therefore our event. This was late December 2014 to early January 2015, and we started meeting with the club, which now has more than 20 members. We presented our proposal for the hackathon to the appropriate authorities, and they seemed extremely pleased. Our plans were approved, and the first high-school-level, overnight, 24-hour hackathon was underway.

![The Devshop logo: a silver gear and wrench crossed by a blue banner reading "DEVSHOP"](/assets/blog/hack-prepas-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-3.webp) _The Devshop_

Everything seemed fine, and then we realized we still didn’t have a date. Our school is famous for its overwhelming number of extracurricular options. Last year, I believe, there were around 33 different conferences and events organized by student associations per semester. That’s 33 events of 1–3 days each over the course of 6 months, so yeah, it was jam-packed. We approached the appropriate authorities with the intention of setting the date, and despite our best attempts, we couldn’t seem to get a date past two months’ worth of planning. By this I mean it was mid-January, and the furthest possible date was March 13th. We had no choice but to take that close date and get straight to work. Another challenge came when we were told out of the blue that we couldn’t host an overnight event. So close to the hackathon, we thought about calling everything off, because what’s a hacking marathon without the marathon part? Thankfully, we found our way around it: with the help of several volunteer teachers who served as chaperones, we got permission, and we were back on track.

Financing events for around 30 people is no problem if you have enough time, that is. With only a month and a half for us to plan the hackathon, getting sponsorships was the main obstacle. We reached out to different organizations and companies, most of which couldn’t help given the timing and how close the event was, mainly because getting sponsorship approval takes time, but also because high-school-level hackathons were unheard of. It really didn’t surprise me, but Icalia Labs, the company I’m an apprentice at, was the first to come to our aid and offer help. I won’t go into details, but I can say that the willingness with which my co-workers agreed to mentor the hackers and provide support for the event was truly admirable. These are the kind of people who make communities grow and companies excel, and I’m extremely honored to be a part, however small, of their team. We had unofficial help from other organizations, such as the school itself, which helped with getting food; the Mexican branch of MLH, which gave us plenty of pointers and a bit of extra support; and a few other companies. The support of all these companies and their commitment to social responsibility allowed us to offer participation in the event, with three full meals, completely free of charge.

![Hack Prepas logo: a black gear next to the words "HACK PREPAS" inside a rounded rectangle](/assets/blog/hack-prepas-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-4.webp) _Hack Prepas_

In the end, everything came together thanks to the hard work and extreme dedication of my team and me. We had around 50 participants in total, most of whom stayed with us during the 24-hour period. We were able to put together three workshops throughout the event: one on front-end web development, one on MIT’s AppInventor for Android development, and one on Google’s App Engine, taught by one of my co-workers from Icalia Labs. To be honest, we didn’t expect much from the hackathon participants in terms of final product quality, as most of these people were high schoolers with little to no development experience. Much to our surprise, we saw hacks on a completely different level, ranging from mobile book-borrowing apps for our school library to 3-D hologram games with actual hardware being built right there in front of us.

Despite the endless phone calls, video chats, Google Hangouts, and immense amounts of stress, I have nothing but pride and gratitude toward my fellow organizers, the organizations involved in pushing Hack Prepas forward, our school, and the hackers who attended. They gave me the privilege and honor of being a part of their hacking experience and a chance to give back to this awesome community, and they made me feel like the future of Mexican hacking is in good hands: the hands of people who love it as much as I do. I can now see that I’m most definitely not alone in this.

![Five members of the Devshop student board in matching black polo shirts, arm in arm in a school library](/assets/blog/hack-prepas-first-high-school-hackathon-in-mexico-5.webp) _Devshop student board (me in the center)_

HM

Written by

Hector Morales · Former Apprentice Developer

Hector Morales apprenticed as a developer at Icalia Labs while still in high school and helped organize Hack Prepas, the first high school hackathon in Mexico.

[Profile](https://medium.com/@HectorMg)

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