My Experience as DSC Lead for University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.
I became a member of the Developers Student Club, a Program organized by Google Developers that is present in various Universities across the globe, in my first year as a Computer Science Student at the University of Port Harcourt. My goal was to apply the basic knowledge of Programming that I was being taught by Lecturers in my Department and become very good at Programming.
When I joined DSC in the year 2018, I met a lot of awesome and friendly Students, most were in same Department, Computer Science. Being a friendly person, It didn’t take me a long time to get acquainted with all the DSC members.
We had Meetups, Workshops as well as Hackathons at the Computer Science Lab in my School. Ray Okaah was the DSC Lead at that time. I did my best to attend all the meetups I was able to. I wasn’t conversant with any Programming Language when I became a member of DSC, I was just keen on learning.
During the meetups, We were paired into groups according to our stacks and levels in Technology (Newbie, Beginner and Intermediate levels) and were assigned mentors to lead each group. I always paid attention and loved how things were done by the previous DSC Lead, Ray Okaah. I didn’t know that one day, I will be the DSC Lead for my School! 😃.
On some days of the meetups we had, I would volunteer to help teach the Newbies in frontend Web Development, HTML and CSS (which was what I was good at to some extent at that time). To be honest, I was so excited doing that.
On a particular evening, Ray Okaah, the previous DSC Lead, reached out to me and informed me that his tenure as the DSC Lead was coming to an end and he will be replaced with someone else capable of leading the community. He said he has noticed me and felt that I would make a good Leader for the DSC.
I was astonished and at the same time glad that he considered me, but still tensed about being a Lead!😱😱 I told him that I wasn’t sure I would be able to lead a whole Club of about 100+ persons. I mentioned that I didn’t feel good enough and lacked enough experience in Programming and Tech in general to be able to lead a club with Tech Professionals. Ray convinced me that it wasn’t as difficult as it seemed and he sees a good leader in me. I was still tensed and hardly convinced. So, he gave me some time to think about it after assuring me that he will help me in the Application process and I should not be scared. Phewww….😥😪😪
I decided that I was going to take the shot 😊😊 and I started the application process. I made a YouTube Application Video, which was part of the DSC Lead application requirements. 👇💗💗
It was an interesting process 😊💗😃💗. So my interview was scheduled, and I had a video interview. The questions asked were basically what was asked in the application form. So I had no issues answering the questions the interviewer asked. 😊
After a few months, I received a congratulatory email from DSC, saying that I had been chosen as the DSC Lead for my school!!!😍🥰🥰💃💃I was introduced by Ray to the club as his successor DSC Lead at a meetup.
Then I was invited to a Google Summit in Accra, Ghana at Swiss Spirit Hotel Alisa Accra.
I was so excited! as my trip was being sponsored out of Nigeria to meet and connect with Google Developer Relations Sub-Saharan Africa, Women Tech Makers Ambassadors as well as the rest of the DSC leads. I was really excited! That was my first trip in a plane and first time traveling outside Nigeria!😂💃
The summit was a success and a thrilling experience! never to be forgotten💗😍😊. I met and made friends with a lot of Developers and Google Developers Relations Team. I must say it was an amazing experience!💗💗💗
During the summit at Accra, sessions were held at the halls with all the Developers Student Club Leads, we had speakers and hosts, Erica Hanson(Developer Relations Program Manager, Google, Global Lead for Developers Student Club) Auwal MS(Program Manager Google Developers @DSCSSA) , Ada Nduka Oyom, Aniedi Udo and some other Google Developers.
We also had some of the past DSC Leads as speakers, share their experience as DSC Leads and we were also told what we were expected to do as DSC Leads in our various schools when we returned to our various Countries.😊
I also attended the DevFest at Accra. It was a wonderful experience! I learnt a lot.
I traveled back to Nigeria, and back to my University. I began with choosing my Core Team Members, who were active members of the DSC. I chose them according to the different departmental levels in school, and the various technology stacks. My aim was to be able to work with my Core Team and reach out to Students in the various departments and levels, with different technology stacks and interests. My Core Team members were excited to volunteer and to help.
I organized my first meetup with the help of my Core Team Members. The first meetup was an Info Session for old and new club members. During the meetup, I introduced my Core Team members to the Club, and with their help, I enlightened the Club about the aim of DSC, which is to create a mentoring or learning environment for Students interested in learning or acquiring a skill in Technology using some tools provided by Google.
The Info Session was successful with a good number of attendees. My Core Team and I grouped the members of the Club into different stacks such as; Web Development, Android Development, Cloud Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Design, e.t.c. and we assigned Mentors(members of the club with more experience in each stack) to each group.
Still with my Core Team Members, I organized more Workshops/Meetups, with each workshop focused on a particular technology several times in a month at the Computer Science Lab in Uniport.
I urged the members of DSC to attend the DevFest Port Harcourt that happened on the 16th of November 2019, and a lot of them attended and were glad they did!
The time for the Google Solution Challenge came, and in conjunction with my core team members; Ikeh Akinyemi, Fortune Ikechi, Melvin Nnamani and the assistance of the Former DSC lead, Ray Okaah, We came up with a solution idea to build a Blood Donation App that connects blood donors with local hospitals to reduce the rate of deaths in hospitals as a result of lack of blood or lack of a blood type. We took interest in our University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital(UPTH) which is one of the largest hospitals in Southern Nigeria.
We decided to go and interview the section of the hospital in charge of blood donation called Haematology Laboratory.
Below are random pictures taken at the Hospital premises during our group research, of Ikeh Akinyemi, Fortune Ikechi, Melvin Nnamani and myself!
However, there were some challenges I faced as DSC Lead, which included organizing meetups during exam periods and overseeing all the sub-groups that were functioning in DSC.
I am so glad! that as the DSC Lead of University of Port Harcourt, I was able to help a lot of students acquire innumerable skills in their various interests. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to contribute to the growth of the club and to have made a lot of positive impact in the development and aspirations of members of DSC Uniport.
