Hackathon time again. The final hackathon is the culmination point of 14 weeks of training where our students are split into teams of 3 and have to create a fully functional e-commerce website using the skills they have learnt about javascript, html, css, php and sql.
A tough challenge made even more harder due to nationwide power outages meaning that they had no power for two of the days. But our students rose to the challenge finding creative ways to solve that problem and the task set infront of them.
A key part of the hackathon was daily standups run by one of our volunteers: Chris, where the students reported on the tasks accomplished the previous day, the tasks for the current day and any issues they had. This was designed to give them a feel of real life professional software development practises.
“I was quite frankly impressed with the work they were able to accomplish.”
The winners were announced at the end of a grueling week and everyone rejoiced with them. Can you guess the winner?
Our latest batch of students graduated today. It was a truly uplifting event celebrating their achievements: The energy, enthusiasm and gratitude of the students is hard to to put into words.
Daniel annoucing the winner of the best student award
Our students got to share their experiences of the course. Some of the quotes from them included
“I’m very grateful for opportunity to be part of this free program”
“I’m happy to have learnt something profitable to do to help society world and self”
“People think that there nothing is nothing good in Otukpo, you have to leave to develop yourself. But this course proves them wrong. Grateful for opportunity.” Also underwent appendix operation during course but still completed course!
One of the students getting his award presented by his brother
We invited along friends and family to celebrate this special occasion with them, and enjoy the catering we put on them (because a party isn’t a party in Nigeria without good food!). One of the stories was from a brother of a student: “I was skeptical. I told her she was wasting her time. A program like that in this Otukpo? I know the challenges, I’ve seen courses that don’t have computers. etc. But I’m glad she preserved and did this. I’m Impressed with the school and what she’s done.”
Our thanks go out to Daniel and Michael from Otukpo Tech Academy for teaching the course, the local pastor for mustering the community to support us, and the hotel owner who has kindly let us use the venue for free. And all our volunteers and trustees who have given up their time to make this a reality 🙂
Student awarded Certificate
Student awarded Certificate
Student awarded Certificate
The Graduating students
Micheal, an instructor, talks to family and friends of the graduating students
Seeing that the projects made by our students were of high quality, we can say that the hackathon was a very successful and productive work. It was evident that our students applied everything they have learnt and applied it well, even more.
Some even did much further research than the course level & implemented concepts into their projects which left the tutors stunned, such as being able to display pdfs on their websites.
The hackathon period was engaging as students were seen actively utilising their skills and brains to come up with an awesome project.
The results were out at the end of the hackathon and the winners were awarded and everyone rejoiced with them. Can you guess the winner?
The first semester of our training kicked off on a warm January morning with a palpable air of excitement from the 10 students that were starting the 12 week course. This was also our most diverse group so far with an amazing 50% of the course being female.
The semester was characterized by mainly ups and few downs which made it altogether successful. For the ups we experienced great dedication and commitment by the students as regards the training. They didn’t just limit themselves to what was taught, they enganged in self learning and we had constant power supply, something that is not normal in Nigeria… As for the downs, we were initially concerned about the low turnout of students during week 3. To our relief it turned out this was due to unavoidable engagements and family issues which were resolved when they rounded up their engagements. We are also looking to involve the families of the students in the next course so they understand the importance of the course and see the quality of the teaching.
The semester went well seeing that we were able to finish the course outline and achieve our aims and objectives. An example of the high quality work produced by our students was their wordpress projects (in week 1!):
Overall the students were super excited to be part of the course and their dedication and determination was worthy of commendation, and very motivating to me as a teacher. They are proud to call themselves programmers!
Daniel - Head of code school in Otukpo
A wordpress website created by some of the students
Our solar powered computers is the achievement we are most proud of this year.
It solves a critical issue we have around courses being interrupted due to lack of power and it is great for the environment!
Thank you all for your support and donations. We couldn’t do this without you!
Our trustees performed our first (self-funded) monitoring trip to Nigeria and had the pleasure of meeting Daniel the teacher from Otukpo Tech Academy in Abuja. We reflected on the past year and made plans for 2023.
Unfortunately we were unable to visit Otukpo and see the school due to security advice from the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
We had a great time in Nigeria, and an amazingly warm welcome. We look forward to visiting again.
A wordpress website created by some of the students
