Bridging The Tech Gap: Akirachix Instructors Diary(February 2020)

There are such huge concerns in the tech space about how wide the gender gap is. Why aren’t there more women in the tech space? I chose to do something about closing that gap by signing up as an instructor at AkiraChix.

The Class of 2020 kicked off in February. It’s been pretty interesting. I signed up to teach the girls JavaScript. It was an interesting start to the school year.

Within the first week, I was eager to get to know the background of the girls; I knew AkiraChix took girls from marginalized communities. But it never really hits you until you encounter a girl who has never seen a laptop and only had remote access to the internet in a village town from a cyber cafe. Out of a class of 25 girls, only six to seven of them had learned basic computer packages like Microsoft (MS) Office — Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. When I asked how many had access to a computer at home to play around and learn, only 12 said they had.

AkiraChix gave each girl a laptop which made it much easier to spend the first 2 weeks walking them through MS and learning how the internet, Wi-Fi and fibre optics work and how to debug in case there is a problem with internet access.

When you get to have years of experience in your career you have a grasp on larger complex issues. It’s when I am in class with these girls that I realize how easy it is to forget the basics.

When I began the introduction to Javascript in week 3, the girls started asking questions which took me back to the foundations of computer science which took me down memory lane to my college days.

Teaching them the concepts of coding as problem-solving was also pretty fun, we used basic analogies and examples based on day-to-day functions like oiling their hair. Yeah, that's basic. The girls needed to understand that it was essential to understand a problem before they code, define solutions, and get into the right mindset to solve complex problems.

At the end of February, their fourth week of school they were writing code, but using pen and paper still using those simple analogies. Like, write a function on how to oil your hair e.g. you need to have oil, partition your hair, and what happens if you don’t have oil. Then introduce a flow chart. It allowed them also to explore variables of the process and solutions to potential bottlenecks in their solutions. With that, they created a clear process, flow chart, and functions.

By the end of last week, they were introduced to their project for the year through a case study. The case study was a vegetable vendor, whom we like to call Mama Mboga, who realizes her clientele is decreasing. She believes the best solution is to deliver vegetables to her customers. So it’s up to the girls to develop a practical solution for this woman. They will present in November to graduate.

What I love about the AkiraChix approach is the integration of all courses. Yes, I am teaching them Javascript and introducing them to solving a problem they need to fix technically. However, they need knowledge from business, marketing, and personal development classes to provide a more wholesome solution.

I want the girls to understand that being marketable is not about gender; it is about skill. If you can write great problem-solving code, the market will create space for you.

I am looking forward to what the rest of the year holds as I also get to know, learn from, and understand the girls better.