Jennifer Ogumbor-Larbi on Transitioning and Translating Creativity to a Tech Career

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Meet Jennifer Ogumbor-Larbi, a Nigerian-born, Canadian raised Digital Content Creator, and one of Canada's top lifestyle influencers.As Editor-in-Chief of The Jeneralist, Jennifer creatively and openly shares places and spaces, travel experiences, culture, style and inspiring bits that add vibrancy to her everyday life, as she puts it.One interesting aspect of Jennifer's journey, however, is her transition to technology. As an IT consultant, Jennifer supports the implementation of large-scale IT projects while helping companies streamline and improve their business processes. 

"For as long as I can remember, I have always been a creative with a keen interest in technology."

"In my early high school years, my favourite subjects were Mathematics, Science and English. However, I took more notice to computers after taking a Computer Science elective in grade 10. After that, I began taking matters into my own hands and would often get into trouble at home for taking apart our Compaq CPU in many failed attempts to upgrade the processor and motherboard to improve my computer gaming experiences. When I was not consumed with breaking things just to fix them again, I was writing spoken word or fictional short stories, helping my friends customise their Myspace web pages, directing pop-themed video shoots with my sisters with our less than 2-megapixel webcam and compiling short films that I would later burn on DVD’s for keepsake.

As the eldest of 4 girls, I spent a lot of time living in the shadows of my parents and the pressures that came with the goals and ambitions they had for me instead of pursuing my own interests with vigour.  My parents convinced me to follow a medical path after high school and I enrolled in a Nursing program with the intent to pursue med school shortly after.  That "dream" didn’t get very far because I found out just how revulsed I was to the notion and/or sight of blood after having a breakdown during a mock ER session at the end of my first year.  I mustered the courage to de-enrol and came up with a plan to break the news to my parents.  The following year, I enrolled at the University of Windsor in the Social Sciences program and later graduated with a BA in Sociology and a minor in Economics."

• What are some of the challenges you experienced in your transition to IT? And what inspired this new career path?

"Towards the end of my second year in University, I took on a part-time job as a Service Representative with Sutherland Global, a company that works with its clients to rethink their processes and work together to streamline it, rebuild it, and deliver it back smarter than before.  For the first few months of my role, I supported ATT U-verse customers in the American Southwest to understand their frustrations with the systems in place and find ways to help the company improve its interface as bugs were identified.  One of the managers took a keen liking toward me and observed how diligent and analytical I was and encouraged me to enrol in some foundational courses in Business Analysis.  Still in school full-time pursuing my Social Sciences degree with a part-time job that was just as demanding, I held off on pursuing additional courses and continued to garner experience through the company.  I ended up taking the course over the summer, ahead of starting my fourth year and after working in that role for a year or so, I was promoted as a Junior Analyst within the company and began supporting RIM (now known as BlackBerry Limited). This was when I got introduced to the phenomenal world of enterprise software and the Internet of Things. After graduating, I pivoted from pursuing a career in my earned degree and ended up going to work with one of Canada’s largest telecommunications company as a Small Business Consultant/Analyst. I have since worked in the Government, Educational and Oil & Gas sectors supporting large IT implementations that aide companies in conducting day-to-day operational services more efficiently.  Acknowledging  that technology is ever evolving, I am currently enrolled in a series of courses to get certified in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to remain relevant in the industry."

• Tell us about the work that you do as an IT consultant. What project(s) are you currently working on?

"As an IT Consultant/Senior Analyst, I support large-scale IT projects while helping companies streamline and improve their business processes.  I am currently working on a multi-million dollar enterprise software implementation for ATCO’s Natural Gas Distribution division, to decommission multiple legacy databases previously used to manage assets and simultaneously implementing IBM’s enterprise asset management cloud solution called Maximo.  This will include complex integrations with other enterprise cloud solutions.  The successful implementation of Maximo will result in huge business benefits for the organization and a significant ROI; including but not limited to the digitization of their manually driven workforce, along with providing a single database which will become the source of truth for management of their spatial and non-spatial assets."

• What inspired the creation of 'The Jeneralist', and how do you wish to create an impact through this platform?

"While planning my wedding in 2017, I was drawn back to the childhood/early adolescent creative in me that had been so long suppressed. Putting a creative concept together for the wedding and seeing things come to fruition so vividly refuelled that creative flare and before I knew it, I began looking for ways to express myself more openly amidst all of life’s ups and downs.Excited for the challenge of building my own website, I took the leap and created The Jeneralist at the beginning of 2018 to serve as a creative outlet, nurture my love for writing and to push the boundaries of my creativity through photography.  On my blog, I share vibrant moments and travel experiences through writing and photography but also speak openly on my personal journey and advocate strongly for mental health by sharing positive messages and tips to encourage my readers to prioritise self-development and self-care.Since 2018, I’ve been able to grow (still growing!) and connect with a like-minded community of over 10 thousand people across the globe. I realise that I’ve established myself as a leader in this age of social media and remain conscious of messages I share online and the potential impact(s) they may have on my readers.  By being true to my values and continuing to share my journey as comfortably as I can, my hope is to continue encouraging others to let their own voices speak louder than any doubt in their minds that convince them that they may be inadequate. Most importantly, with so many different personalities online my hope is to continue reminding people that we are more alike than we are different and that no one person truly goes through anything alone."

• In your opinion, are there any strategic reasons why “content will always be king”?

"Within my first year of creating content for my blog, I learned very quickly that sharing content without any form of strategy is pointless. In order for your brand to grow, to encourage engagement, increase traffic or even generate new leads to your site/whatever it is you are sharing, you want to ensure that any content you put out is of high quality and will add value in some way.One simple strategy that has proven effective for my blog is doing some research on any topic that I want to share in an article/post and incorporating commonly used keywords on that topic. By doing this, it helps greatly with things like Search-Engine-Optimisation (SEO) and will also help your website to rank organically on search engines.  A higher ranking on search engines will ultimately result in increased exposure of your brand to more digital consumers searching for content/information relevant to the respective topic.Good content, whether it is in the form of a blog post or photo update on social media encourages your audience to engage with your brand.  When sharing on Instagram for example, I take the quality along with the wow-factor of the image into heavy consideration before sharing.  The simple fact is that if the content is genuinely good and you are able to captivate your audience, they will pause to consume the content, understand the message and perhaps even comment, like or share it with their followers as well.So needless to say, content will always be king."

• What advice would you give to anyone trying to transition into STEM careers?

"My advice to anyone trying to transition into STEM careers, especially women, is to find a way to get your foot in the door and to pursue your interests with vigour.Innovation has come a long way but at a time when technology continues to transform the way we live, work and learn, the need to close the STEM gender gap is more critical than ever.  From the outside looking in, STEM can often seem like an intimidating field, but my advice would be to push past the fear of the unknown in order to continue denying false stereotypes/narratives.  I encourage you to attend local STEM events in your city (eg; Women in Tech events), network as much as you can and find people (women) you can shadow to get deeper insights into your field of interest and take the initiative and enrol in some foundational courses. There is a wealth of accessible knowledge/information on the internet that can help you kick-start your journey.  You never know, your transition to STEM may just be a simple Google search away."[/spb_text_block]

Evelyne Inès Ntonga on giving HOPE to blood supply in Senegal

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Evelyne Inès Ntonga is a Cameroonian entrepreneur, and a Design Engineer in the telecommunications sector.In 2016, Evelyn created and launched HOPE, the first digital platform in Senegal that allows blood banks and other healthcare facilities to manage blood stocks, communicate permanently and interactively with blood donors, and raise awareness about the importance of blood donation.Evelyne recently received the Observatory Award for eHealth in the countries of the South awarded by the Pierre Fabre Foundation.

• What is it like to be a female engineer in Cameroon?

"In many parts of Cameroon, women are still considered as the property of men. Due to the lack of education and the weight of traditions/customs, they undergo certain situations and sometimes are not consulted for certain decisions involving themselves or their families.We observe that times have changed and the skills acquired by women who have braved the engineering curriculum, are not questioned. Moreover, we notice that responsible positions are entrusted to them and they carry out their missions properly.I can quote as an example, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications of Cameroon who is a woman, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of the Aeronautical Authority."

• Tell us about your project HOPE, and what inspired this.

"The project HOPE was created in Senegal and is the fruit of a collaboration with a friend, Jean Luc Francisco Semedo.During our 4^th academic year in 2015, and regarding the blood shortage faced by the National Blood Transfusion Center in Dakar, we decided to bring a solution to this problem thanks to the use of Information Technologies and Communication, but especially by taking into account realities of the country.Indeed, according to the World Health Organization, every minute in the world, a woman dies while giving birth for causes related to lack of blood. Furthermore in Senegal (2015), only 0.45 % of the population gave blood, which is very insufficient to meet the needs for blood products and reach a self-sufficiency as advocated by WHO. Nevertheless, we live in a world of connected people, with a mobile penetration rate that has exceeded 100 % in Senegal and in many African countries.The solution we have found is to create a blood donor’s network, interconnected via mobile and on which blood banks should lean on to improve their communication with populations, to raise awareness and boost the number of voluntary blood donations to save lives.

"HOPE is the first digital platform in Senegal that allows blood banks to manage their structure and increase their blood supply, thanks to a permanent and interactive communication with blood donors. This is done by sending SMS to thank the donor after a blood donation, sending donation reminders 3 or 4 months later, sending emergency alert SMS and vocal calls in local languages, and providing a mobile application for blood donors while having a strong presence on social media."

We officially launched the project in 2016, with a pilot phase of 7 months at the National Blood Transfusion Center in Dakar. During this period, we succeeded in tripling the blood donations in the center. Approximately 10,900 SMS were sent to blood donors and about 30,000 people were reached across our different platforms.Through our work, we have received national and international recognitions including:- Winner of the Digital Innovation Award in Dakar, in 2015 (by NGO Reach for Change and Tigo)- Winner of Falling Walls Lab Dakar in 2016 (by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation)- Winner of the Global South E-health Observatory Award (by Pierre Fabre Foundation).This year, we have launched a second pilot, with the blood bank of the regional hospital of Thies, a region of Senegal which struggles to meet the high demand of blood products. The results of this pilot are already very satisfactory, and we have great hope to achieve our objectives."

• Are there enough blood centres in Cameroon as compared to Senegal?

"The National Blood Transfusion policy in Cameroon is still young and in full implementation. The construction of a National Blood Transfusion Center in Yaounde has been announced, which will include several regional centers, a blood treatment establishment, and the application of a national strategic plan of blood transfusion over the period 2015-2020.Many hospitals have their own blood banks to meet the clinical needs of patients. Currently, about 84,000 blood bags are perceived per year, and the gap between the supply and demand of blood products is still very important in Cameroon. However, concrete actions are being taken to boost the blood transfusion activity of the country and guarantee the safety of blood products for patients.In Senegal, however, there is a National Blood Transfusion Center in Dakar, responsible for the supply of secure blood products to hospitals. To support its action, there are nearly 20 regional centers throughout the country. Thanks to this, approximately 95,000 blood bags are collected annually."

• What is the next step for HOPE?

"After two very successful pilot phases at the National Blood Transfusion Center in Dakar and the regional hospital of Thies in Senegal, the next step for HOPE is the official deployment of the solution in all blood banks in Senegal and in many African countries that face the same difficulties to reach self-sufficiency with blood products. Particularly in Cameroon, Mali, Mauritania, Togo, etc.This important step for HOPE depends on the lifting of the constraints that we encountered during the last pilot phases, mainly the appropriation of the platform by the Ministry of Health which is the guardianship of the health structures that we want to help.In addition, we are looking for partners to support us in the implementation of our action plan on the continental and international scale, so that no more patients die because of the lack of blood."

• What do you see yourself doing in the next 10 years?

"HOPE is an innovation that could certainly reach many people and demographics. For this to happen, it will be necessary:- to have the appropriation of the platform by the Ministries of Health of different countries- to build innovative and strategic partnerships- to have material and financial resources to expand the blood donors network through the effective animation of this platform by a dynamic and creative teamWe believe in the high potential of our project to fight against mortality rates due to the lack of blood supply. We also believe in the achievement of self-sufficiency with blood products in many countries."[/spb_text_block]

Bih Janet Shufor Fofang on developing pedagogic tools to enhance STEM education in Cameroon

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Bih Janet Shufor Fofang, an electrical engineer by training, has been teaching for more than 15 years at the largest government technical institute in Cameroon – the College D’enseignement Technique Industriel et Commerciale. While supporting a strong female presence at the institute, she continues to teach technical subjects including mechanical and electrical engineering.In 2009, Bih Jane founded the private K-12 Tassah Academy in Cameroon, with 600 students currently enrolled – 60 percent of whom are female.Bih Janet’s goal is to increase the numbers of women in technology in Cameroon, and to give them more decision-making power in STEM. After her visit to Silicon Valley in 2013 through the U.S. State Department’s TechWomen program, Bih Janet initiated the "STEM Boxes" project to equip her students with technology equipment used to teach and learn innovative technologies. Bih Janet’s efforts to drive computer literacy in West Africa are laudable. In 2016, she received the A. Richard Newton Educator ABIE Award which recognises educators for developing innovative teaching practices and approaches that attract female students to computing, engineering, and maths in K-12 or undergraduate education. Recipients are honoured by the technical women’s community at the Grace Hopper Celebration. The Award honours the life and career of A. Richard Newton (1951-2007), who was a professor and dean of the College of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, a pioneer in electronic design automation and integrated circuit design, and a visionary leader in the technology industry.

"I grew up in a large family from humble roots, in the North West Region of Cameroon. I had an interesting childhood, and did the things most children in my neighbourhood did. I sold foodstuff in the markets, and went to farm with my parents."

• What was your first impression of STEM as a young woman?

"I have never thought of STEM as something that had a gender assigned connotation tagged to it. As a matter of fact, I happened to grow up having many brothers and mimicked and competed with them at every level without paying attention to gender. It was only until I started work that I realised workplace ethics seemed to identify role plays with gender. I have always known what I have to do without fear of stigma or stereotype. I grew up free, and no one reminded me of what I could or could not do."

• You have been teaching electrical engineering for over 15 years at the College D’enseignement Technique Industriel et Commercial. What has this experience been like for you?

"It's been 18 years, and I now develop pedagogic tools to enhance the teaching and learning of STEM in our educational system. It has been an enriching experience; one where I have had to exchange skills with bright young minds and grown my own competence. Not only have I developed the ability to analyse and think things through, I have learnt the art of giving back selflessly as I see my students grow and appreciate what they have acquired. I learnt to be patient and humble to learn new things while accepting the possibility of exploring other options in my career."

• What inspired your STEM Boxes project?

"'STEM boxes' was borne out of a need to reach out to students in underprivileged areas with little resources. Given that most of the technology equipment used to teach and learn artificial intelligence and innovative technologies are not made in Cameroon, I knew I had to figure out how to reach as many students as possible with a few boxes. Even though I taught different things to different groups of girls, I knew we can not accept the excuse of lack of resources and not do something to overcome these challenges. We need to work beyond obstacles. Miniaturised labs are now the order of the day, and as technology is changing and offering the ability to bypass challenges, we have to take advantage of these opportunities."

• You have had the opportunity to visit Silicon Valley. How did this experience change your general outlook on technology and culture?

"My experience at the Silicon Valley was life changing. I realised there was something I needed to fix as soon as possible. That was my mind! I had to make a tremendous mind-shift to transpose the thought process of the inventors and innovators of Silicon Valley into my own space with its own realities...because we all shared one thing in common. We are all simply focused on solving a problem in our communities, and we are doing so with all the conviction and passion we have possible. They believe in their dreams, they have the conviction that everything they do, no matter how small, contributes to the well being of their society. That was a big lesson for me. Believing in one's self, one’s ability and one's worth."

"What if we stopped waiting for someone to provide solutions, and focused instead on also making change happen in our communities by solving everyday problems through our own inventions?"

• If you could change one thing about Cameroon now, what would it be, and why?

"I would change the educational curriculum, and the way lessons are delivered, because there is a disconnect between what is taught in school and everyday life. Students finish school and lack the skills and aptitude to solve even the most basic problems around them. The education they receive sometimes seems to mislead them into thinking that earning certificates is what matters more than owning a skill."[/spb_text_block]

How Ethiopia’s Rediet Abebe is using algorithms and AI to address socio-economic inequality

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="Sidebar" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Rediet Abebe is a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science at Cornell University, with interests in algorithms, artificial intelligence, and their applications to social good.  She is interested in using ideas from algorithms, networks, and data science to better understand and implement interventions in socio-economic inequality.Prior to Cornell, Rediet completed an M.S. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University, an M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge as a Harvard-Cambridge Fellow, and a B.A. in Mathematics from Harvard University. She has also completed two research internships at Microsoft Research.Rediet grew up in a low-income family in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she followed the national curriculum before getting a merit-based scholarship to attend a local international high school. 

"I was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. My mother has been working as a civil servant for the past 3 decades. So for me and my two siblings, Tsega and Ililan, our main option was attending local public schools. My mom has always been dedicated to getting us the best education possible. In my case, she stood in line for many hours several days in a row to get me into Nazareth School in Addis Ababa, which was an inexpensive, all-girls Catholic school that my sister would also later attend. I was enrolled at Nazareth School through middle school, where I followed the national curriculum. In eighth grade, I won a merit-based scholarship given out to four students from city to attend International Community School of Addis Ababa. At ICS, I followed the International Baccalaureate curriculum before applying to universities abroad."

 Rediet has also co-founded several initiatives to help identify and forge new research paths and create more collaborative environments at the intersection of computer science and social sciences. These include an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research group on Mechanism Design for Social Good and corresponding workshops at the ACM Conference on Economics and Computation. The group and workshops have hosted speakers from computer science, economics, global health, sociology, as well as many related fields. The goal of this initiative is to build domain knowledge in topics including affordable housing, economic inequality, and social mobility, to identify algorithmic, optimization, and mechanism design problems aimed at improving access to opportunity.In spring 2017, Rediet co-founded and has since been co-organising the Black in AI group, which aims to foster collaborations and increase the presence of Black researchers in AI. In December 2017, she co-organised the first Black in AI Workshop at the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS '17), which is the largest machine learning conference. She has also been a dedicated mentor to many women and under-represented minorities through various programs.

• You seem to have a passion for Mathematics. What inspired this, and why the switch to Computer Science?

"My family tells me that I was interested in math for as long as they can remember. My mother recalls that before I even got to first grade, when I was home-schooled, I would go through my math lessons very quickly and would insist on more lessons! I realised that I’d like to pursue math as a career in middle school when we started learning geometry. I was mesmerised by the concreteness and elegance of it, and I would often spend entire weekends trying to understand why different geometric identities hold. I don’t remember how I learned this, but someone mentioned to me that professors get to do this for a living, and I thought 'that must be the coolest job ever'.I studied math through college at Harvard and was planning on pursuing a Ph.D. in mathematics after finishing my masters in math at the University of Cambridge. I spent the summer before at the University of Chicago, where I got exposed to algorithms. During my time in Cambridge, I took some classes related to algorithms and game theory. This experience put me on a totally different path. I realised that I could work on these mathematically-flavoured problems that have always interested me, but also apply them to answer societal questions. So, now, in addition to spending entire weekends trying to prove theorems, I also get to work on problems that can directly improve our understanding of societal processes."

• Tell us about the project you are currently working on.

"Along with Kira Goldner (a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington) I co-organise the Mechanism Design for Social Good group, which is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional group with the goal of identifying research topics for which algorithmic, mechanism design, and AI techniques have the potential to improve access to opportunity. Through this group, we have been exploring domains such as housing, economic inequality, and the developing world through an interdisciplinary lens. My research involves using algorithms and AI to shed light on under-explored dimensions of socioeconomic inequality. This includes improving our measurements and understanding of the impact of factors such as social capital, financial shocks, and access to information. I also work on improving resource allocations, targeting education and designing systems to mitigate inequality."

• What are your career plans after your PhD?

"I’m still very excited about the prospect of becoming a professor! In fact, during my time as an undergraduate and graduate student, I’ve learnt many things about the job that make it more appealing to me. In addition to doing research, I really enjoy teaching, and that’s a huge part of the job. I’m also very passionate about mentoring. I’ve greatly benefited from many senior students and faculty members who have taken me under their wings at various points in my academic development. I try to do the same with younger students. Long-term mentor-mentee relationships such as those in Ph.D. advisees are especially enriching experiences. I have had the fortune of working closely with both my graduate adviser here at Cornell and various members of my dissertation committee and other researchers. I think I’d really enjoy being on the other end!I’ve also taken on other roles during my time as a graduate student, including being a Graduate Resident Fellow on Cornell’s West Campus and a Graduate Student Ambassador at the Cornell Graduate School. As a faculty member, I would enjoy not only teaching and mentoring students in my departments, but also being part of the broader university community."

• Do you think having the opportunity to study abroad has shaped your STEM career positively?

"It has, in many ways. I remember that one of the first things I did when I arrived at Harvard as an undergraduate was to go to Widener Library. I walked around for almost two hours looking at the rows and rows of books on each floor. I had never seen so many books in my entire life! The libraries that I had access to before were a thousand times smaller, if not more. Studying abroad, and especially at these institutions that I attended, opened up a lot of opportunities for me that I could not previously imagined. I also met many of my mentors and collaborators who have helped me in my growth as a researcher through this experience, and I am very grateful!I am also hopeful that such opportunities will expand to cover all of Ethiopia, and more broadly Africa. There is growing interest in mathematics and computer science, and there is a lot of incredible work coming out of institutions in Africa. For instance, at the first Black in AI workshop, which I co-organized with some friends and colleagues, we had presentations from Ciira Maina and George Musumba from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology and Bonolo Mathibel from IBM Research Africa, as well as many other poster presentations by African researchers. There are various initiatives across the continent. Just in Ethiopia, Jelani Nelson is organizing Addis Coder, a programming and algorithms summer program for high school students. I was also at the initiation of the African Girls Can Code Initiative launched by UN Women just this past week. I’m hopeful that soon all Africa women and girls will have the option to stay at their hometowns and having access to the same opportunities and resources as they would abroad."

• What are your predictions for artificial intelligence next year? And how do you think this can advance social good in Ethiopia?

"This past year has been an incredible year for AI! The community is responding to the pressing need to both increase the diversity of the field, and also formalise ways to discuss societal implications of our research.Concerning fairness and ethics considerations of AI, we have seen two conferences that started just this past year - the ACM/AAAI Conference on AI, Ethics and Society (AIES) and the Conference on Fairness, Ethics, and Transparency (FAT*). Both of these grew out of the recognition that AI research cannot be pursued as a purely technical endeavour, but must be responsive to societal concerns. There are larger and larger communities that are approaching AI from an interdisciplinary perspective, including in AI for social good; and it's thrilling to be part of this movement!This past year, we also co-founded the Black in AI group and co-organized the first Black in AI workshop at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) in December. NIPS is the largest machine learning conference, but until this past year it was only attended by a handful of Black researchers. This year was different. The workshop drew hundreds of Black researchers to NIPS! The Black in AI group is growing rapidly, including across the African continent, and I believe has been helpful in fostering research collaborations. I think we will see more work on AI by Africans and for Africa!"[/spb_text_block]

Saidat Giwa-Osagie on making a career transition to technology

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Saidat Giwa-Osagie is the founder of Adorli – an online platform for natural, cruelty-free and indie beauty products.With Adorli, Saidat is connecting consumers to beauty brands that care for their customers as well as their environment.However, what is fascinating about Saidat’s journey is her transition from social sciences to technology, and the automotive industry – where she also happens to be a Network Planner with Ford Motor Company.

"I grew up in Scotland in a family that celebrated our Nigerian culture and heritage as something to be cherished."

"In secondary school, I studied a range of subjects, before settling on a final mixture of arts and science subjects.  I enjoyed the contrast between the two fields and became appreciative of knowing a bit about each area, and still carry this multi-passionate perspective today. During my time in university, I developed an interest in technology, from dabbling with basic web design for an online entertainment magazine I edited at the time.  I was also reading about the new crop of tech companies in Silicon Valley, and through my studies I saw the impact of technology in political movements.  After receiving my first degree in Social Policy and Politics at Bristol University, I studied for a Masters in Management, Information Systems and Innovation at the London School of Economics, which further cemented my interest in the field of technology."

• You transitioned from social sciences to automotive IT. What are some of the challenges you experienced in this transition?

"The biggest transition was learning about the automotive industry and how it is intertwined with IT. Coming from a social sciences background was helpful, because I am interested in how people interact with technology.  In the automotive context there are different segments of IT users (both external and internal) so understanding how they interact with the different facets of technology is key."

• You recently launched Adorli, a marketplace platform for independent beauty brands to connect with beauty lovers. What inspired this?

"I was met with the frustration of finding products specifically catered to my individual beauty needs.  I was looking for products made with natural ingredients and products that would be kind to me.  As a result, I would often find myself in the beauty aisle with a potential product in one hand, and my phone in the other as I researched whether I was holding a product that would work for me.  It was time-consuming, and not particularly fruitful. I began exploring the idea of a digital platform where people would be able to find beauty products that matched with their unique and individual beauty.  I think there’s a certain kinship and empathy that exists when connecting customers with entrepreneurs that have lovingly created their own beauty products, often out of the same frustration of not finding the exact products that met their own needs.  Adorli is the space to bridge that gap through its celebration of beauty that is both individual and kind."

• What one thing would you like to see changed in your home country of Nigeria?

"I am excited about the startup ecosystem in Nigeria and the ongoing work by business communities, accelerators and passionate individuals to bring entrepreneurial ideas into fruition.  I would like to see the continued growth of these opportunities in tandem with systemic changes that enhance socio-economic development, which in turn will enable more people to build successful businesses that will economically empower business owners and their employees."

• What advice would you give to anyone trying to transition into STEM careers?

"Stay curious and keep learning.  When you find a particular area that interests you, keep asking questions and exploring.  Even when you’re in that specific field, keep learning.  Explore adjacent paths for a more holistic perspective.  Look into areas that don’t have a particularly strong connection to your field, because it helps broaden your outlook.  It also gives you the advantage of making advanced and insightful connections with your unique point of view." [/spb_text_block]

Grace Ouendo: Bridging the digital divide for vulnerable girls in Benin

[sidebar_widget sidebar_id="sidebar-1" width="1/1" el_position="first last"] [spb_text_block pb_margin_bottom="no" pb_border_bottom="no" width="1/1" el_position="first last"]Grace Ouendo is a founding member and Communications Manager of 'Access to Computer for Every Girl (AC-FEG)', a non-governmental organisation created by a group of young Beninese in 2016. Motivated and committed to the cause of vulnerable girls, Grace and her team use information and communication technologies to help educate girls to become autonomous.

• Tell us about your NGO ‘Access to Computer For Every Girl’. What inspired this, and what are some of the activities you run?

"It all started with a text message. A male friend had the idea and was like, "let’s do this together", and I was like, "why not?". With my knowledge in ICT, it’s the best way for me to give back to society what I know.Access to Computer For Every Girl (AC-FEG) aims to provide girls with better opportunities to excel in life through the use of ICT. Our goal is to train a maximum number of girls in high-school, especially in the villages of Benin, to fight against intellectual ignorance in all its forms, and to help colleges and high schools acquire computer equipment. Our primary mission is to promote access to free ICT training for more girls in school."

• What is the tech ecosystem like in Benin?

"In general terms, it is evolving. We are in the era where people are becoming conscious of the utility of technology, especially among the youth. Our youth are getting interested in coding, web development and the likes, and I think gradually we are getting there even though it might be slow."

• What is it like for women in Benin to gain knowledge and access to careers in IT?

"We still have plenty of room for women to get engaged. The number of women in IT careers is gradually improving. We have super coders who are women. The more women are in those positions in the IT sector, the more it will motivate other women to join. In terms of availability of those careers, there are very few. People need to create more enterprises in this sector for there to be greater accessibility."

• In your opinion, how do you think women should battle preconceptions and entrenched ideas about gender in the world of technology?

"It’s all in the mind. The limits we give ourselves are in the mind. Today, with all the speeches on women empowerment, I think it should help women to know that nothing is impossible if only we believe. The most important thing is to try, before saying it didn’t work."

• What would you like to see change in Benin in the next decade?

"In the next decade I want to see a country where there is a positive change of mentality towards civic issues. On a larger scale, there should be tech systems put in place to show transparency in our administrative processes."[/spb_text_block]