Cas Cornelissen, a programming and IT whiz, was just a kid when he figured out what he wanted to do: “I think I was 11 or 12 when I realized I wanted to do something technical. My father had a technical job as well and I was interested in that, and my interest kept on growing ever since then.”
His first programming experience actually came from a video game. “There was a shooting game that I used to play with my friends. I learned that some people had made these things called aimbots – a program that makes the character shoot automatically – and I wondered whether I could do that.” So how did he learn to do it? “I taught myself how to program, purely out of interest.” He didn’t even have IT classes. This dude taught himself!
Whereas some people come out of college without knowing what they want, Cas was in high school when he specifically knew that he wanted to be a front-end developer. His choice for front-end notwithstanding, he wanted to know as much as possible about everything around it. That’s why he studied Communication & Multimedia Design. “Front-end development is the link between back-end development and design,” he explained. “I already knew a little bit about back-end development, and studying CMD was the one link that was missing for me to do what I wanted to.”
Cape Town
It’s thanks to his studies in CMD that he stepped into the Hackaverse [the Hackastory universe], anno 2015. In classic Hackastory fashion he was thrown into the deep end. “I was on holiday with my girlfriend when Nienke [Huitenga, Hackastory co-founder and creative lead] called me and asked whether I wanted to join participate in the Hackathon in Cape Town.” He called back within the hour to confirm, and the rest is history. “It’s a long trip but an opportunity like that only comes once in a lifetime. It was a fun team, I had a great team and I learned a lot during the hackathon. I clicked with everyone. They’re all passionate and investigative people, and that’s really important.”
Cas (with the red laptop) at the Cape Town hackathon
Cas balances his work at Hackastory with a full-time job as a front-end developer for Freshheads, and other freelancing projects where he puts his back-end and design skills to use. ”I want depth and width when it comes to my programming knowledge. That’s why I work besides my day job.” He even does programming in his spare time just because he’s into it, for fun and relaxation. He pretty much codes around the clock.
The Dark Knight
He works with Hackastory during the weekends and nights because he believes in the cause. “I think there’s an enormous future ahead for Hackastory, and I want to help them.” It’s in his nature to want to help people, he said. “I see myself mostly in a supporting role. If help is needed, I want to help and give my opinion.” He’ll keep going until he’s accomplished what’s necessary. He’ll literally stay up all night to get the job done. “The question is never, ‘can something be done’? It’s ‘how quickly can we do it and will it be worth it?” Such a belief that there’s a solution to anything is of immeasurable value to any team. And he’s on the Hackastory team. When Hackastory calls on him, he’ll be there, day or night. He’s the hero we deserve. A dark knight.