[richardburton]

I am so glad I was accepted to RC. It had a huge impact on my life. Although I was one of the least experienced programmers in my batch, the staff and fellow students made me feel very welcome. My goal was to learn how to make iPhone apps. Here are some highlights:

- A faculty member taught himself Objective-C to help me along.

- Several other students were extremely kind with their time.

- I learnt that even experienced programmers struggle through the debugging process, it’s just that they would find the cause of the problem in a minute and I would take an hour. That was reassuring.

- I paired for the first time.

- I made a bunch of new friends who are now scattered all over the world doing lots of interesting things.

- We played lots of poker and got to see each other in a different environment (for science!).

- RC gave me the confidence to keep plugging away at programming. It showed me that everyone has to keep learning. It taught me a frame of mind which I now apply to all programming problems.

I am forever grateful to the founders and faculty for creating the Recurse Center.