Back in July, we announced the launch of Vonage Voyagers, a one-year program for developers who want to get their hands on new communication technologies first and be part of a group of like-minded peers who support and learn from each other. It’s an opportunity for us to reward and recognise the valuable contributors in our community. You can become a Voyager by applying directly or nominating a colleague, friend, or another community member.

The time has come to meet the inaugural Voyagers crew! Each week throughout November we’ll highlight a group of Voyagers and learn more about them and their interests. First up, please meet Naomi Pentrel, Victor Steven and Omer Geva.

Naomi Pentrel

Where are you based?

Naomi: Amsterdam, Netherlands Victor: Lagos, Nigeria Omer: I grew up in Boston. Currently based in Tel Aviv!

Tell us about a project you worked on recently

Naomi: Recently I played with the idea of creating MongoDB-related comics (https://www.deviantart.com/npentrel). I love visualizing technical concepts and I love giving all the components a face. Victor: I was recently given the challenge to use a crypto library in Golang to encrypt and decrypt data. Took me a while, but through reading documentation and lots of reading, I got it working! Omer: I have started and been maintaining a React-based coffee blog, with different features like quizzes.

Victor Steven

What are you most looking forward to doing as a Voyager?

Naomi: I'm looking forward to meeting the other voyager crew! 🚀 Developing some blog posts is also at the top of my list! Victor: Developing content for developers. Omer: I'm very excited to learn about the products while being able to get to know the people who made them. I'm also looking forward to collaborating with other developers and learning during the process. I think this experience is very valuable!

What do you think is an exciting part of working with communication APIs?

Naomi: One of my internships during uni was at Skype and I remember how excited I was to work on something that connects people and that me and my family had used to stay in touch when one of us wasn't home. I think communication APIs are the next level - they allow app developers to build communication into everything easily - and that's really powerful. Victor: The thrill of seeing something work on real-time with little effort. For example, using the SMS API and getting a real-time notification on my phone. Connecting to an API that does all the work for me without having to reinvent the wheel. Omer: What's exciting about communication API's is that they allow us to communicate with users in very creative ways, and Vonage's APIs are great with that. Each user has a different lifestyle, and a wide range of communication APIs allows us to cater products to each one.

Omer Geva

Tell us a fun fact about yourself!

Naomi: There are about 30 spider plants in my home 🍃. Victor: I love networking and meeting new people. Given I’m not an extrovert, it’s amazing how easy I find it to strike up conversations. Omer: I'm a big sports enthusiast, and I love to run long distances!

Join Naomi, Victor and Omer by applying directly or nominating a colleague, friend, or another community member to become a Voyager. Stay tuned for more Voyager spotlights to come!