Holding up the Ladder

[Music]

think back

to when you were 17 years old

did you have dreams of what you wanted

to become when you grew up

are you living those dreams now

when i was 17 if you told me that one

day

i will become a computer scientist i

wouldn’t have believed you

i didn’t own a computer nor did i have

constant access

to one but today i’m the proud holder

of a phd in computer science and a

number of achievements

in the same field journeying from a 17

year old

who had little experience in life and

the computing world

to today has been the accumulation of

experiences

spaces and people that have shaped

my career in the last four years

i have actively referred to these

lessons supported by

on the ground data to create and lead

a mentorship program for tech students

in kenya

today i’ll tell you how that journey

influenced my idea of mentorship and

drawing from that experience

i’ll share four qualities of an

effective

mentorship program i hope that this

information

will be useful for mentees who are

looking for mentorship programs to join

and for mentors who wish to start or

evaluate the existing programs

this is me at 17 years old

fresh on the grounds of my university

where i had the first consistent

interaction

with computers i had just enrolled for

degree in mathematics and computer

science

more for the mathematics and not

computer science

but my innate abilities in maths made me

get

fascinated by the logical nature of

subjects like

computer programming my lack of

computing experience was trumped by

tapping into an existing skill

having supportive teachers and finding a

mentor

in my mathematics professor

i admired many things in my mentor

from his vast knowledge in his field to

his quiet

sense of humor one time i asked him how

i could deal with exhaustion

when i had to sit in the library for

long hours to study

and he said to me whenever you feel like

that

just stand by the window and look into

the horizon

and as you do that imagine your dreams

four years later as i was graduating and

i stood up to receive my confirmation

my lecturers washed with pride as my

parents emerged from the crowd

and put flowers around my neck

at that moment i knew that i could be

anything

i wanted to be today

when i think back to those formative

years of my life

i appreciate that i had an environment

that allowed me to choose which skill

resonated with me that even though i

burst in inexperience it snatched the

curiosity that continues to shape me

into the computer scientist

i am today it represented what steven

spielberg

one of the greatest filmmakers of our

time said

mentorship is not about creating someone

in your own image but allowing them to

create

themselves however

i’m humbly aware that many students

in many universities around the world

may not have

such opportunities no such support

therefore creating safe spaces

that allow vulnerability and natural

curiosity is the first quality of an

effective

mentorship program

safe spaces

a year and a half later i was working as

a teaching assistant

i dedicated time to apply for

postgraduate programs

and on one of those days at the end of

the day

i decided to check my emails before

heading home

at the top of my inbox was one from the

university of oxford

i never clicked on it and as the email

opened

it was as if i was acting out an out of

body experience

right before my very eyes i was looking

at a full scholarship

to support the entirety of my

postgraduate studies

in excitement i switched off the

computer and

rushed home but i was so in disbelief

that i didn’t share the news with anyone

for two days

months later armed with my bugs and the

excitement

of a thousand fires traveling alone

i boarded the plane for the first time

and left the continent of africa

six thousand nine hundred and thirteen

kilometers later

i arrived at the university of oxford

the university that had trained

scientists like stephen hawking

and presidents like cerretsa karma

i felt brilliant and confident

a few days after i attended the

international student orientation

i walked into a room that had high

ceilings

rustic walls and large windows the room

was filled with excitement

as laughter and charter filled the air

after the initial introduction to the

program we were asked

to take our seats in groups so we could

introduce

ourselves as i took my seat

in a group of eight i couldn’t wait to

share how

excited i felt

the introduction started and around

the circle everyone seemed more

accomplished

than i’d ever felt from the 21 year old

who was about

to embark on their phd to someone who

was starting their second master’s

degree

and then it was my turn

with all eyes on me i tried to master

the excitement i’d felt earlier

so i straightened my shoulders and said

hi my name is chao and i’m from kenya

someone exactly chimed in and asked oh

did you go to the university of nairobi

i smiled back and said actually no i

went to kenya methodist university which

is in a town called

meru that’s about 200 kilometers

from nairobi

oh my group member replied

visibly expressing that he had never

heard of it

and that was my first real encounter

with imposter syndrome and it wasn’t

the last maya angelou

who was a nominee for the pulitzer and

also won several grammy awards

say that she sometimes felt like an

imposter

but even though she had written 11 books

she sometimes wondered

when someone will find her out as a

fraud

this feeling that i was an imposter that

i didn’t belong

haunted me and for a while

i asked myself that maybe i don’t

belong in oxford that even though i had

been

a street a student i didn’t possess the

brilliance

nor the intellectual curiosity that was

required

of me to succeed

i needed to go back to my 17 year old

self

who approached the world with fresh eyes

while traveling back home armed with a

master’s degree in computer science

i couldn’t help but realize that my idea

of education

had changed into one that embraced

broader thinking

consequently today i see the value

of creating teaching and mentorship

spaces

that foster problem solving and critical

thinking

towards in-depth learning

and that is the second quality of an

effective

mentorship program safe

spaces depth

when i returned back home i started

teaching

computer programming to first and second

years

while doing that i yearned for more

skills

and more exposure so i applied for phd

programs

and by merit i earned my second full

scholarship

to pursue a phd in computer science at

the university of cape town

under the same bags that i came with

from oxford

i traveled to the university of cape

town

and my excitement was ten thousand more

the university with aerated researchers

and the first university in africa to

have its own public transport system

there i was privileged to be supported

and mentored

by two of the world’s best professors

they taught me most of what i know today

about research

and communicating one science

i worked on a project that looked at

designing

mobile learning environments for

computer programming

especially for students in

resource-constrained

environments this project

made me appreciate the value of

user-centered

research so much so that when i returned

home after graduating with a phd

i applied user-centered research in most

of my teaching

and learning as i was finding my footing

back home

in academia i started receiving queries

from students on how they could apply

for

scholarships and postgraduate programs

the frequency of these queries led me to

call a meeting for the students

and on one saturday morning a colleague

and i

met an amazing group of 40 students to

understand

and try and answer some of the questions

they had

this meeting led to a survey among these

students

and some from three other universities

to understand their mentorship

needs the results showed that

university students seek mentorship

in five areas one

personal development two

professional development

three innovation and ict skills

four scholarship awareness and

application

and five community engagement

these five pillars form the foundation

of a mentorship program that still

serves students

to date therefore the third quality

of an effective mentorship program is

one that centers the needs of the people

that it aims to benefit

safe spaces

depth people

in the course of my mentorship work i’ve

had the privilege

of meeting three amazing individuals

meet barbara i first met barbara

when i was teaching computer programming

at the university

she was the only female student in the

class

and this was a trend that continued in

most of her other courses

while a brilliant and dedicated student

barbara often yearned

for community of female peers with whom

she could learn

and grow

meets maniki maniki is passionate about

art and music but as a computer science

student

at university he found that those who

are often missing

in the classroom especially the

intersection of these skills

with technology so maniki yearned for

spaces

where the fusion of technology and art

was the norm and not the exception

meet monica monica joined university

when she was 25 years old

eight years after completing high school

making her older than most of her

classmates

she started a degree in applied

computing so she often found

the need to seek for support in order to

gain her footing

and foster her towards a future career

in computing

babra maniki and monica represent

many students across many universities

who while learning technical skills in

the classroom

first discomforts questions and

uncertainties

babra represents just 37 percent of

female students

who enroll for stem subjects in kenya

maniki and monica represent students who

yearn for support

and skills that may not be taught within

the four walls

of the classroom for example

in 2020 we conducted a survey among

students from 36 kenyan universities

and up to 73 percent of these students

indicated to not having received

consistent mentorship

outside the classroom and yet

a 2019 study that was conducted among 20

000 participants

showed that the three top non-technical

skills

most sought after are problem solving

teamwork and communication

to address this need we can offer

mentorship that is consistent guided

stakeholder driven and measured

this defines structured mentorship

therefore structure is the fourth

quality

of an effective mentorship program

safe spaces

depth people

structure

since 2016 when i created the mentorship

program and now have the privilege to

lead

we have so far worked with a 10-member

management committee that supports

the program each year we admit

a new cohort of students who take an

eight-month mentorship program

since 2016 we have served 169 students

from 19 kenyan universities

and we’ve done this by collaborating

with up to 95

industry professionals and 19

organizations

we also observe a strict 50 50

representation

of students who identify as male or

female in order to offer a platform

for equal inclusion finally

barbara found a space in the mentorship

program

that could help her meet and learn with

female

fellow female peers thus gaining access

to similar platforms locally and

internationally

like monica we have seen students

who found new passions and reignited

personal strengths today

monica is well on her way to becoming a

cyber security

engineer we’ve also seen students who’ve

become

leaders in their local and international

communities

today maniki is a passionate user

experience designer

writer and storyteller who combines his

skills

to showcase his talents locally and

internationally

i call upon each one of us to hold

the ladder up for others we can do this

by offering safe spaces that allow

vulnerability

and natural curiosity that are

challenging enough

to foster in-depth learning

and that are people-oriented such that

they place the needs of those it aims to

benefit

right from the start and that are guided

consistent stakeholder driven

and measured if we can do this

we can impact 1 10

100 or even a thousand others

like barbara maniki and monica

the latest wangari madai said that

she believes that those of us who are

privileged enough to get skills

education experiences and even power

have the responsibility to be role

models

for the next generation of leadership

i believe that we can achieve this

through safe spaces depth

people structure

safe spaces

depth people

structure thank you