Nice-looking babe too, to boot

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/tech/teenager-hacker-school-africa-google/index.html

Question: What are we doing in Nigeria?

(CNN) -- Martha Chumo, a 19-year-old self-taught programmer, was supposed to be in New York right now, honing her coding skills and mastering cutting-edge technologies in the company of fellow software enthusiasts.

Instead, she's thousands of miles away, in her hometown of Nairobi, Kenya.

A few months ago, Chumo was accepted into the summer intake of Hacker School, a U.S.-based "retreat for hackers," where budding programmers come together for three months to write code, learn new languages and share industry insights.

Whereas the programming boot camp was free to attend, Chumo still needed to find a way to cover her trip costs and buy a new laptop. Excited and determined, the young developer turned to online crowdsourcing platform Indiegogo for funds. She set a target of $4,200 and managed to raise nearly $5,800. All she needed then was a visa to travel to the United States.

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Alas, this was not to be. As an unmarried adult who was not enrolled at university, Chumo was not eligible for a U.S. tourist visa because she couldn't show sufficient "social ties" to Kenya to prove that she was planning to return home after attending Hacker School.

But the U.S. consulate's refusal only served to slightly alter the plans of this passionate coder.
I thought if I can't go to the hacker school, let me try to bring the school to me.
Martha Chumo

"I thought if I can't go to the hacker school, let me try to bring the school to me," says Chumo. "(Let me see) what can I do to start a school here."

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Within minutes of her second visa request denial, on June 4, Chumo was calling her friends to announce that, "I'm starting a hacker school in Kenya!'

A few days later, she launched another Indiegogo campaign asking people to help her set up her own school for developers in Nairobi.

"I was so frustrated because I had applied to go to Hacker School; I got into it, I raised funds to go there, I had all these plans to read and learn for three months and then I'm not allowed to go -- that's how the idea for the school was born."

Autodidact

It's all a big change for this bright youngster who didn't even own a computer until a year ago, let alone know how to write Python web frameworks and Ruby gems.

A top pupil at her school, Chumo was planning to study medicine at the University of Nairobi. But she "bumped" into the tech world last summer during an internship that enabled her to access a computer on a daily basis.
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This triggered a deep desire in her to learn everything about this exciting new world; Chumo quit her internship, took her savings and bought a laptop. Soon after she was rubbing shoulders several hours a day with fellow techies at the iHub -- a co-working space that's become the meeting point for Kenya's coders and aspiring tech entrepreneurs -- using online tools such as Github and Treehouse to become versed in web design and development.

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Not interested in becoming a doctor anymore, Chumo started working with other programmers on open source software and got a job as a developer. Her passion to become better then led her to apply to Hacker School.

"In programming you're constantly reading and learning and doing something new," says Chumo. "There's always room for improvement in what you're doing," she adds. "You get to do something new and not use the same old technology forever -- that's the fun part, and also being able to build anything that you can think of."

For more:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/17/tech/teenager-hacker-school-africa-google/index.html

Good move. Do we have something like iHub in Nigeria? If no, then I think this type of tech centre is a must for Nigeria. Hacker School is a place every developer must try to visit before he retires. I plan to be there one day. Very soon.

GraphicsPlus: Good move. Do we have something like iHub in Nigeria? If no, then I think this type of tech centre is a must for Nigeria. Hacker School is a place every developer must try to visit before he retires. I plan to be there one day. Very soon.

yes. we have cchub in yaba lagos

That is a nice initiative from her. That'd inspire others in her locality to become coders. But i dont understand the need to "build the next google" Or maybe google as a name is used generally to refer to sth big

Ajibel: That is a nice initiative from her. That'd inspire others in her locality to become coders. But i dont understand the need to "build the next google" Or maybe google as a name is used generally to refer to sth big

sorry to bust your bubble bro, why did you become a female? Thought it was ajibel(m)? Concerning the next google thing, it is all about having billions of users that loves to use your product.. (building that kind of enterprise, not possibly 'another google' per se, but that sort of enterprise-based on revenue, profit, innovation, users etc.)

GraphicsPlus: Good move. Do we have something like iHub in Nigeria? If no, then I think this type of tech centre is a must for Nigeria. Hacker School is a place every developer must try to visit before he retires. I plan to be there one day. Very soon.

We have several hubs in nigeria for now I can remember Cchub and idea hub. CChub is a great place to mingle with very talented and passionate developers. They organise hackathons periodically. it's a developers paradise.

Chumo quit her internship, took her savings and bought a laptop.