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