Ms. Margaret Onyango narrates how the Miss.Africa Seed Fund sponsorship honed her expertise in dealing with technology and built her personality.
‘What a man can do, a woman can do it better’.
This has come to be a reality in my life after finishing my degree in Computer Science at St. Paul’s University in 2016 and secured scholarship to pursue MIT with eMobilis, which was powered by Miss.Africa Seed Fund. The training has since then honed my expertise in dealing with technology, team work, entrepreneurship and generally built my personality.
Being a woman in a male dominated field has made me to realize that women are just as equal as men and one’s gender should not be a factor to shy off from the field.
The Miss.Africa Seed Fund sponsorship gave me a chance to practically learn what is needed in the field and advance my skills in coding. My favourite part came when generating my first code in PHP. This marked the exponential growth of my career and now I am a confident PHP programmer.
Being a rising junior to break the barriers of ‘women can never do this or that‘ is never easy but its worth giving a shot. Creating opportunities for others has always been a goal thus with the help of other ladies from the same program we were able to come up with a mentor ship program (Transcorn) that focuses on mentoring and encouraging more high school girls to take part in careers in Technology.
Women are really emerging in technology in the 21st century in Africa and soon it will be a competitive field for both genders. With this drastic growth, more tech solutions are to come in especially with women in the picture. Nothing is impossible and I would advice the male counterparts to always support and encourage women to take part in Technology since it is coming with a wave that requires power from both sides
Anyone interested to have a career in ICT should always be ready to learn. IT is a fast-growing field and it requires one to constantly get updated with new technologies to remain relevant.
For the girls out there, it only takes a “Hello World” to realize how much potential you have and you shouldn’t Shy away from it but Embrace it.
Miss.Africa Voices is a regular online journalthat presents women in tech experiences, opinions and observations. These stories come from DotConnectAfrica Internship Alumni and other Women who are leading the tech-preneurship fronts in their own ecosystems. The Miss.Africa Voices also serves to encourage more girls & women to get involved in STEM careers through our Miss.Africa Digital Program.