Taking one Step at a Time; Building Bridges not Walls

What a wonderful year?! 2016 has been very eventful and exceptionally successful making it a breakthrough to cheer. My passion for getting more girls and women in to STEM fields increases everyday as I work with girls in secondary schools and young women in Cameroon. I feel very satisfied and happy working as a mentor in my community, inspiring and training girls with hands- on skills in computer sciences. I am pleased to share some major and outstanding milestones that spiced my year and how I have contributed in closing the gender tech divide. I can proudly say that 2016 has been one of the most memorable episodes of my life.

• In March 2016, I was a virtual panelist for the Voices 2016 conference organized by Global Techwomen. This is an online event that features Women in Technology around the globe. It was a rewarding success and a very impact full event. I shared my breakthrough moments during a conversations with leaders From Sub-Saharan Africa: Cameroon and South Africa about a professional breakthrough that I had, how it happened, the role I played in bringing it forward and the leverage points that influenced the outcome.


• In April 2016, I organized the Girls in ICT Day in Bamenda during which 30 secondary school girls participated in activities to celebrate this day, such askeeping fit / health walk around town, visit to Tech related institutions like CAMTEL's technical department, presentations at our exhibition stand to share information and sensitize about STEM education for girls. Girls in ICT Day celebration aims to create a global environment that empowers and encourages girls and young women to consider careers in the growing field of information and communication technologies (ICTs).We were honored to dialogue with a role model in Tech, the Chief of Center of CAMTEL during which she inspired the group by sharing her life story.


• In July 2016, Cameroon was one of the two African countries that had a winning team that made it to the World Pitch Event for the Technovation Challenge in Silicon Valley. Being one of the Regional ambassadors of Technovation in Cameroon I was very excited. The joy began when it was announced that 9 teams from Cameroon made to the semifinals. We waited anxiously to hear the results of the finals. We all had our fingers crossed and finally it was announced that one team of our girls were finalist. All the members of Technovation Cameroon was super excited to have a winning team among the 10 finalist as World Champions. This amazing team called ‘Angels Tech of Africa’ made up of 5 girls aged between 14 to18 had the chance to present the mobile application "Nature Gift” which they had developed to solve an issue that they had previously identified in their community.This app’s objective is to increase the quality and visibility of Africa’s agricultural products on the world market nature gift aims to give more opportunities to the global population for accessing high quality natural products.They made their pitch at Intuit and San Francisco University respectively after visiting AutoDesk, Twitter, Facebook, Mozilla Corporation and Google. The Cameroonian team was in the Middle School Category and succeeded in the 3rd position of the competition winning an award; ‘Honorable Mention Award’.


• In September 2016, I was one of the speakers during the Mini -Africa Day event at the US Congress in Canon House in the presence of 4 Congress men. As the co-chair and co-presenter of the planning committee of Cameroon American Council (CAC), I delivered the opening presentation on Hack the Future of Cameroon's medical Transportation: Med Travel Tech. The aim was to engage the diaspora in the process to disrupt the medical transportation sector in Cameroon using technology as a tool for development to bring sustainable solutions. Due to my brilliant presentation I was invited for the white House tour.


• Finally, in October 2016, I was awarded a scholarship by the Anita Borg Institute to attend the prestigious world class Grace Hopper Conference for Women in Computing in Houston, Texas. What a great opportunity for me to connect with well accomplished mentors in STEM fields. I looked around the TOYOTA Center and saw that I was sitting with 15, 000 like- minded women engineers from all over the world gathered to learn from and network with each other and celebrating all the accomplishments of women in his male-dominated field. At first sight, I got a little bit intimidated coming from a minority and underrepresented community. But that did not distract me because I reminded myself of whom I am. This was the highest point that caused a turnaround in my professional development goals. This conference helped me to solidify my chosen path in computing. Talking with great mentors and listening to very amazing speakers got my brain motivated and inspired me to gain my path and further develop my career in computing.

As the year comes to close I can agree on one thing, 2016 will not soon be forgotten. I am honored by the people who worked with me. Thank you for support and being part of my success.

Moving forward with lots on inspiration and relevant information that I gathered at the Grace Hopper Conference. I realized women need to pursue quality professional skills to effectively cause a change in the community in order “To be the change we want to see”. With that motivation and inspiration, I decided to apply to take a Master’s program at the Information and Communication Technology University in Cameroon (ICT-U). With much excitement I received my admission letter in December 2016, accepting me to pursue on line studies in Information Systems and Networking. Acquiring relevant further training and exposure in this domain will increase my professional profile and open new doors for opportunities.

Later on, I plan to specialize in Cyber Security and Privacy. I am encouraged to do this because I work a lot on line and I get exposed to hackers. I want to know how to protect myself on line, so that I will in turn teach other women and girls about their on line privacy, better on line behavior and practices to build a culture of respectful on line behavior, which is pertinent issue now a days especially for women. It will enable me learn skills on how to adopt secure coding mechanisms or breaking systems skills and to raise awareness about Cyber Gender Based Violence.

I have the urge to help women see themselves not as passive recipients of information but as active technology developers. When women speak confidently, take risks, and own their accomplishments, they set positive examples for girls to follow. I want to continue contributing to “change the ratio” so that more women get in to the tech work force, helping young women become the best that they can be, and offer them genuine support and advice on what they need to do to achieve their own goals.

“When you go up the ladder don’t remove it, send it down for other women to climb”.

Ladies step out of your comfort zone, and explain how good it feels when you succeed and how much you learn when you don’t. Join me let’s talk openly about our own experiences taking the lead and celebrate female leaders in our life and in the news. Finally, let’s make sure girls understand the benefits of being a leader, like having a voice and making things happen!