This Friday, Orases had a record of 9 students join us for Take Your Child to Work Day! The Orases team was excited to welcome our legacy team in a day filled with fun AND learning.
The day started with our very own Justin Park meeting with the students on the importance of usability in designing software/technology. Justin is an Associate UX Architect at Orases that has a passion for user-centered design. Justin engaged the students by relating technology usability to areas where the students had vast experience — video games and YouTube!
After a tough loss in dodgeball against their parents and a fabulous Chipotle lunch the students were able to put their UX lesson to use. Orases partnered with local, Elsewhen Brainery, to program Alexa Echo Dot skills. Orases provided each child with their own Alexa Dot and Andy and Cara Christianson of Elsewhen Brainery taught the students how to follow Alexa Blueprints to program their very own skills. To say the students enjoyed their lessons is an understatement. Cara, a former FCPS teacher and Andy, an Orases alumni team member, did a terrific job keeping the kids motivated and hooked on their new-found expertise.
We rounded out the day with an ice cream sundae bar and a competitive game of kickball — adults versus students of course!
Take a look at what our Orases legacies had to say about their day:
Thomas (age 11)
What is 1 thing you learned today? That you can program your own Alexa.
What was your favorite activity? Programming Alexa in the skills area
What do you want to be when you grow up? Engineer
What is your parent’s role at Orases? Business Developer
Liam (age 12)
What is 1 thing you learned today? One thing I learned today is that you can get your Amazon dot to roast people with.
What was your favorite activity? My favorite activity was when we played dodgeball.
What do you want to be when you grow up? I do not know what I want to be when I grow up.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? UX Manager
Martin (age 5)
What is 1 thing you learned today? I learned about Alexa. I made my Alexa play songs. My favorite song is “Sink & Destroy”.
What was your favorite activity? Talking to Alexa.
What do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be a racer.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? My dad has meetings.
Oliver (age 9)
What is 1 thing you learned today? To program an Alexa.
What was your favorite activity? Burning people (roasts).
What do you want to be when you grow up? A hockey player.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? Business Development
RJ (age 14)
What is 1 thing you learned today? How to set up an Alexa and have it roast you.
What was your favorite activity? Going outside and playing circle dodgeball against the adults.
What do you want to be when you grow up? Probably the same thing as my dad.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? A website developer and helps his co-workers fix mistakes.
John (age 12)
What is 1 thing you learned today? I controlled my Alexa and programmed it to say “roasts” to people. My favorite roast was, “I have no notifications of your life.”
What was your favorite activity? Beating my dad, the company President, in dodgeball.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A civil engineer.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? They own Orases.
Dana (age 9)
What is 1 thing you learned today? One thing I learned today was UX stands for user experience. I also learned that people who work in UX make games, websites, etc easier for users.
What was your favorite activity? Today my favorite activity was programming Alexa. This was my favorite activity because I got to program burns on Alexa and everyone knows that is funny.
What do you want to be when you grow up? When I grow up, I would like to be an engineer. I would like to be an engineer because I like designing and making new things.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? My parents are the owners of Orases. Their job is very important to team members.
Bella (age 11)
What is 1 thing you learned today? I learned how to program an Echo Dot Alexa.
What was your favorite activity? Giving Alexa burns to say.
What do you want to be when you grow up? A doctor so I can help people be healthy.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? Making websites and fixing them.
Elizabeth (age 12)
What is 1 thing you learned today? I learned how to program Alexa and code shapes and colors.
What was your favorite activity? My favorite activity was playing outside.
What do you want to be when you grow up? When I grow up, I want to be a doctor or a lawyer.
What is your parent’s role at Orases? My dad is a programmer at Orases.