The Struggle to Be More
Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to teach teenagers in Universal United College. This school.

When I have to wake up at 7am on Saturday morning so I get there early enough, I regret my decision to volunteer. This regret though evaporates when I see these kids.

During my first session with them, I realized just how bad the subject Computer Studies (read “Theory in computer studies”) was. They had no idea about anything except whatever they had to cram in order to pass their exams. That didn’t stop them from showing up on the first day though and telling me how they wanted to learn how to code. One even said she just wanted to learn whatever we were there to teach. I remember feeling that way once. There was a point in my life I was like that and so I could understand not trusting yourself enough to own your destiny. This is about a few kids i have worked with in the course of five saturdays.
Abideen is 15. He makes sure we have electricity. He and Maliq once carried a generator (a medium sized one) for a distance over 2 miles or we wouldn’t have had power that day. Usually, they wheel it in a wheelbarrow but it wasn’t available that day and they had to carry it in hand while they were fasting (they’re muslims). Abideen is a fast learner. Even I underestimated him at first but he shows up, he finishes his tasks first. He doesn’t own a laptop but that has not hindered him from trying to learn as much as possible as fast as possible and is one of the few I would ask to help others when they get stuck
There is Quadri and Daniel (I asked them to sit together so they use the same system and seemed to work well together. Quadri does not forget. I remember calling him XML the first 3 weeks because that seemed to be his favorite answer. He missed 2 weeks of classes and still managed to keep up and would submitted assignments he wasn’t even there when I gave.
Ayo is my favorite. I have no idea why. Always smiling (unless she cant resolve her issues), she’s also the one who said she was there to learn anything we wanted to teach and has pushed herself far enough to convince me she meant it. I once stayed an extra hour with her because she didn’t understand something and kept me till I had answered all her questions and watched her complete her class work
There are 21 students and about 10 functioning systems. Hello Pair-Programming. But these kids push against all odds to be here. They’ve learnt to functionally pair program out of necessity. They live here

but it does not stop them from dreaming big. I haven’t put up everyone but I do have stories about most of them and understand how just showing up can sometimes be a challenge they have to overcome. These kids remind me everyday of the saying popular amongst Andelans that “Intelligence is evenly distributed but opportunity is not”. They may start here but I look at a few of them and just know that if they continue to learn and apply themselves as voraciously as they have with me, there will be no limits to the things they will accomplish in due time.
Teencode is an Andela mentorship initiative to teach children in high school who might be interested how to program