DSC Is Now A Tech Culture In My University
I am writing this to share my experience of how I build a tech community in my university from unrecognized to very recognized.
I have always loved to be part of a tech community, where I can train people, give a public speech and demonstrate how to use any new technologies I am conversant with. I am going to be sharing how I get involved in building a tech community in my university, my challenges and how I overcame them.
I used to be a GDG Lead for my university, all thanks to my mentors and motivators for making my university have it own GDG Farouk Umar and Auwal MS, The very first of its kind in my university for six months before receiving an email which contains a google form.
I fill the form for the to be a DSC Lead which took me a week to finish up and after a few weeks, I received a congratulatory email from the DSC team.
Before receiving a congratulatory email, I wasn’t nervous because I feel that I have passed through a lot of ups and downs while applying to be a GDG Lead and was ready to apply again.
Building a tech community
Building the tech community in my campus was not easy, but it is all that I wanted to do from my first year in school, I wanted it to be a culture and tradition in my school. Which is happening now.
First I created a close relationship between me and one of my lecturer Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, who now happens to be head of department (HOD) and DSC IBBUL patron, he later introduced me to one of my departmental lecturer, Mr. Abdullahi A. Kawu who is a tech lover and showed massive interest to build the community together with me and my co-leads.
One thing I know is that it was not going to be easy for me to work alone, so I try to look for passionate and awesome people who are willing to go the extra mile with me just to make this tech community possible. It has been so wonderful working together with them. I made sure that every good idea is welcome and we try to implement it for the community. We have been able to organize so many workshops and events together, which turns out to be a huge success.
My Challenges
In building a tech community expect the so many things that will help you build yourself, most especially in collaborating with other local communities, a tech hub, and tech institute. My first challenge was how to get a permanent venue for the club where we can carry out workshops and other practical activities. My members always complain that we don’t have swags that will give them the spirit of motivation to keep them moving and we always have poor numbers of attendees during our events and workshops, which always break my heart.
Overcoming The Club Challenges
Overcoming the club challenges was not an easy thing but it was so nice seeing the changing, with our club advisor and club patron everything was easy to overcome. I want to personally thank Google Developers for providing us with the swags for they fill full their promises and also thanks to Aliyu Aboubakar for collaborating with MLH (Major League Hack) that make our club to having endless swag to share during workshops and events. Concerning the permanent venue for workshops and tech practical, our adviser and club patron make it easy for us to get, that is why we always organize a weekly workshop for the members.
During the National Education Strike that lasts for several months, DSC IBBUL still organizes workshops during that period, all thank Paritie Dynamic Enterprise Limited, JDLab, Sysbit Nigeria and GDG Minna for making DSC IBBUL have successful workshops during that period of National Education Strike also thanks to FUTMX Dev Circle for collaborating with DSC IBBUL.
DSC IBBUL have organizes 10 workshops, 3 events, and 2 hackathons.
My unforgettable moment as a DSC lead was when we organize our biggest event which was Google I/O 2019 Extended & DSC IBBUL Showcase with over 300+ students were in attendance and also the Vice-Chancellor of the University in the person of Prof. Muhammadu Nasiru Maiturare accompanied by the ICT Director Prof. Musa Bawa, Dean Student of Affairs Dr. Ma’ali and Deputy Examiner Faculty of Natural Sciences Engr. Elijah Joseph was in attendance. The Vice-Chancellor in the person of Prof. Muhammadu Nasiru Maiturare said he is impressed to see the students engaged in tech activities solving local problems with their skill and with this, the school management and are ready to support the DSC IBBUL in activities to help achieve their goals.
I want to thank and appreciate everyone for helping me work towards these achievements and goals I have over 30 lists of names I wish I can write down for supporting me create a tech culture for my university, it like an adventure but we still overcome the challenges and build this together.
Word Of Advice to new DSC SSA leads
I want to use this opportunity to advise all new DSC leads that are starting this race should always dry to work with people who are willing to work extra miles with them and are passionate about tech. This is the time to learn how to work with people from different backgrounds and always remember as a leader you can’t work alone or do it alone always welcome every member suggestions deliberate with the suggestions with your co-leads and your club adviser this will help a lot and build the club to strong.
Am very much happy to be among the alumni and mentors for DSC SSA 2018/2019. My special appreciation goes to Erica Hanson, Kormal Sandhu, Aniedi Udo-Obong and SolomonAwosupin for bringing DSC to Africa.
