Growing up, a technological device that I used the most was the TV. I loved watching an educational series called Takalani Sesame. As I think about it now, I have always loved learning. I learned different South African languages from watching that series. As I grew older, I got to love science shows. They were fascinating, and I was convinced that I would become a scientist.

The next technological device that shaped my life is the smartphone. I have always had mobile phones. In high school, I got a smartphone that was faster with a good camera. Those are the only features that I cared about. I learned how to use the Google search engine like a pro to find the latest music, I was a deep house fanatic, and it was hard to get the latest music. That helped me to become better at searching for information and resources on the web. I also learned how to use Instagram hashtags to make my content be seen by people in various geographical areas and increase my social media following.

Later, when I was studying Electrical Engineering at a Technical Vocational Education and Training college, I discovered IT. Before then, I knew IT to be a career for super-smart kids. I did a lot of research on the subject, found out that web developer jobs have a low barrier to entry. I got myself a computer to learn how to code. It was fun, enrolled at freeCodeCamp.org to learn JavaScript. The idea was that after 6 months of building my web developer portfolio, I start applying for jobs. I was motivated by the high demand for web developers in South Africa and the high I got from building web applications. I thought it would be easier to get a job if I had a portfolio to showcase my skills. Well, I accomplished my goals except that I could not get a job. The IT industry is competitive, and employers need more than a portfolio of projects to hire you.

I then decided to enroll at the University of Johannesburg to study Business Information Technology.  Before, I had acquired a lot of certificates from Udacity, freeCodeCamp.org, and Coursera. Our lecturer, Dr. Patrick Ndayizigamiye, introduced us to the IBM Z ambassador program and the Master the Mainframe competition. He was a judge for the 2020 Master the Mainframe challenge. I had fun completing the MTM 2019 challenges. At the beginning of each challenge, we had Jeff Besti teaching us about the mainframes. I was new to it and fascinated by the big iron. That made me participate in the MTM 2020 and recruit my friends to join the contest too. I learned that the mainframes support critical business operations, which I like the most about technology. It can process more than a million transactions per second. He is an excellent teacher with a great sense of humor, haha.

While participating in the Z ambassador program, I learned the power of the tech communities. It reminded me of the time when I was at home learning web development by myself. I had no one to pair program with or run to when I had a difficult question. Yes, there is StackOverflow, but there is no sense of a personal bond there. The weekly sessions for Z ambassadors made it easy for us to engage and reach out to each other for assistance in completing the challenges. Being part of the enterprise computing community has allowed me to learn technical and soft skills.

I looked around my university and realized that we did not have tech clubs. I took it upon myself to establish a tech club where students can collaborate, build software products, and share ideas. This enables them to build relationships that will last even after their university days. Our community is growing. We are not limited to IT students. We accept applications from all students who have an interest in technology and entrepreneurship. Our vision is to inspire the students to explore, create, and connect. To help reduce the high levels of unemployment and dependency on the government.