This is a story about resilience, determination and passion.
It started way back in August 2011 when I got admitted to study Applied Computer Science.To be totally honest,I didn’t know what it was all about.I always saw myself as a mathematician because numbers make sense but missed the chance to study statistics.
At the time I had a mini laptop which I had bought with my HELB money(Higher Education Loans Board).I still remember vividly when my favorite lecturer Oops! not sure if he will appreciate me mentioning his name, but yes kengere kibwage saying, "Give that toy to your baby sister”, and continued talking about common java compilers.(Sir, you shaped my skills)
“what is a compiler?”, I could ask myself but kept silent to mask my ignorance.The class seemed just fine.I felt stupid and my mind told me to quit.you are not creative enough,you don’t get it like the rest.I wish I asked though.
Long story short,I managed to graduate and the impostor syndrome still stuck with me. In my mind, programming was for a certain kind of people, way out of this world.
It was not until I joined Andela bootcamp that my dimensions changed.It was the all female bootcamp edition,in that room was 40 intelligent women including 'myself'.I was inspired.The practicality and relating software to solving real life problems motivated me to go on.I saw a future in solving problems through writing codes,It was not easy but I knew that I wanted to be programmer more than ever that I did quit my job as an IT technician and embarked on this awesome journey to becoming a world class developer as Andeleans like to say it.
I didn't make it to the end of the bootcamp, but something changed.I came out fierce and I was willing to put in the time and effort and nothing could stop me.I was reborn and left behind the misconceptions. Acheng cindy blog was born to document my journey and inspire anyone who wanted to code and didn't know where to start.
I applied for the google Africa Challenge Scholarship in partnership with Udacity and ALC 3.0 and was lucky to be enrolled on Intermediate mobile-web track. The first phase of the scholarship is a 3 month challenge course and only 500 scholars get selected for a nanodegree based on many factors such as participation, completing tasks on time, helping peers among others.
Andela Learning community brought together all learners across Africa ,interacting with each offer, offering emotional support and collaborating (it's what good programmers do).
It has been an intriguing journey learning from some of the best developers including jakearchibald.Knowledge gained during the 3 month challenge course is immeasurable. Have you ever imagined having offline first web apps? Saying goodbye to this:
If you enjoy the game like I do , on the plus side you will still get to play it when you want to .Thanks to the web Technologies Service Worker , Catch API ,Indexed db and fetch API.
The climax was 7DaysofCodeChallenge to create a currency converter app that can work both online and offline.
Today (11th july 2018) , I am lucky again to be among the few 500 scholars to be offered a nanodegree on Udacity and I cant keep quiet.Thank you to everyone who supported me. mckabue and all my peers from the scholarship, andela, udacity and googleafrica
Asanteni sana!
Top comments (5)
Cindy this is actually great! I'm a student at maseno university though...in short i'm still a student. i've been passionate about coding for a very long time and knowing that there are actually fellow kenyans on dev.to makes me elated. i wish ningeweza pata muda wa kujuana na wewe zaidi...even becoming a mentor would be of great help.
I would love to and I totally relate to your story.Email me at info@achiengcindy.com and we can organize with your school/club. I would love to be part of your journey.Cheers
I also got my rispec to the mighty kibwage
Good luck for your nanodegree, keep us updated!
Oooh yes, I will sure do that rhymes