> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://rubycentral.org/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Scholars & Guides Spotlight: Madeline Caples on Learning to Code Alongside AI - URL: https://rubycentral.org/news/scholars-guides-spotlight-madeline-caples/ - Published: 2026-07-27T17:00:59.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-27T17:00:58.000Z - Author: Ally Vogel - Tags: scholarship, Community Every year, Ruby Central's Scholars & Guides Program pairs aspiring Rubyists with experienced mentors for a week of learning, connection, and growth at RubyConf. Scholars get a Guide to help them navigate the conference, build their coding skills, and meet other Rubyists face to face. Alongside that mentorship, Scholars are also invited to take on a mini-project, an open opportunity (not a requirement of the program) to share their own unicorn, whatever makes them uniquely them, with a community that's wonderfully diverse in thought, interests, skills, and talents. This year's theme was "Ruby for funsies: using Ruby and Rails to enhance a hobby," and Scholars could present however felt right to them, whether that meant a blog post, a webpage, a video, or a Lightning Talk on stage. We want to spotlight one Scholar's project in particular, because we think it says something important about where our community is headed. ## Meet Madeline Caples Madeline Caples is a frontend developer who came to RubyConf 2026 as a Scholar and left with a new project, a Notes app built in Ruby on Rails, and a lot to say about how they got there. For their mini-project, they wrote a thoughtful blog post called ["Learning at Ruby Conf: A Workflow For AI Assisted Study,"](https://madelinecaples.hashnode.dev/learning-at-ruby-conf-a-workflow-for-ai-assisted-study?ref=rubycentral.org) which tackles a question a lot of developers are quietly wrestling with right now: how do we keep learning and growing as programmers when AI can write working code from a single prompt? Madeline has written about this tension before. Earlier this year, they published a piece explaining why they were hesitant to lean on AI while learning, worried it would shortcut the hard-earned understanding that makes someone a confident developer. RubyConf gave them a reason to revisit that stance, not to abandon it, but to refine it. ## A workflow built for real understanding Working on their Notes app during the conference, Madeline developed a five-step study flow they now use whenever they sit down to learn something new with AI tools like Claude and Cursor by their side: - **Define** a clear goal and a realistic time frame before starting - **Attempt** the problem on their own first, taking notes and connecting new ideas to what they already know - **Correct** their work with AI feedback, but pause to understand *why* something was wrong - **Refine** their understanding by exploring edge cases - **Iterate**, repeating the cycle for each new goal The result is a simple, structured way to use AI as a study partner rather than a shortcut, one that keeps the learner doing the actual learning. It's a generous, honest piece of writing, and it's worth reading in full. You can find Madeline's full write-up on their blog, [
ersions
](https://madelinecaples.hashnode.dev/learning-at-ruby-conf-a-workflow-for-ai-assisted-study?ref=rubycentral.org), where they regularly write about machine learning and software engineering topics in plain, accessible language. ## Why this program matters Madeline's project is exactly what the Scholars & Guides Program is meant to make possible: a space for someone to bring a real question they're wrestling with, spend a week surrounded by a community that takes that question seriously, and walk away with something worth sharing. That's true whether a Scholar's mini-project takes the form of a blog post, a Lightning Talk, or something else entirely. There's no requirement to get on stage. The point is simply to share who you are and what you're working through with a community that wants to hear it. If you're curious about applying as a Scholar, or becoming a Guide yourself, keep an eye on Ruby Central's announcements for the next cycle. And in the meantime, go give Madeline's post a read. It might just change how you think about your next study session too. [Learn More: Scholars & Guides](https://rubycentral.org/scholars%5Fguides%5Fprogram/)