MY EXPERIENCE AS A MENTOR IN DJANGOGIRLS ABA 2017
On the 29th of June, 2017, I got a mail from Amarachi Agbo (undergraduate coursemate) to be one of the Djangogirls coaches. I never knew what Djangogirls was about but she made every effort to shed more light on what it is all about.
However, I was a little bit hesitant because I was undergoing the Google Associate Android Developer Fast Track program and I was afraid of combining learning python programming language. Also, I had not mentored anyone except working and contributing in a team. Since I had an ample time before the period of the workshop, I had to put it on hold until I concluded my Google AAD program.
On conclusion of my Google program, I started learning python proper as I had just two weeks to the workshop. At first, it was very difficult for me to understand the installations required like pip, virtual environment and django but I had to uninstall and install to understand every bit of the installation since I was going to teach others and to tackle every question that could arise. Few days left, I learnt that Dike Thelma, my colleague at Start Innovation Hub was also part of the coaches- we had to rub minds together for better understanding.
On the 18th of August, installation of applications started. Some of the coaches traveled from far places to the workshop. We had nice time with the mentees to the extent of being reluctant to close early but we just had to. They were so eager to start coding. On the 19th of August, we had a good turn up from both the mentors and the mentees, though some mentees could not make it there. We had breakfast- courtesy of Crunchies. The program started 9:00 am after a great anticipation. While the coding section was on, we had in our midst the CEO of Start Innovation Hub, Country Mentor at Google Developers Group Nigeria, in the person of Hanson Johnson with Nnanna John, Software Architect at RAD5 Technologies and Igwe Uguru. Having Hanson Johnson was a great pleasure and encouragement for the attendees. He advised the ladies to stay focused in the technology sector and they should be able to build applications that will solve problems in their various communities at early stage.
I was privileged to mentor two persons- a male and a female. At the end of the workshop, my female mentee was one of the best two female participants. I was very happy! The excitement furthered as everybody exchanged pleasantries and contacts. It was a great and nice experience and I hope for more of this.
I would like to appreciate the organizer of Djangogirls Aba 2017- Agbo Amarachi, and sponsors like Django Girls, python, GitHub, Crunchies, Kingdom Kings Praise Ministries, Give-n-Take, and Tominas. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the co-Mentors. It was a privilege. Thank you very much.
