You know about HerTechTrail’s community and her academy, but do you know about her heroes? “Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much.” – Helen Keller HerTechHeroes was created as an opportunity for people who are passionate about what we do at HerTechTrail and want to contribute directly to the growth and success of black women in tech globally without having to do the work directly. The programme is entirely remote, and membership is unlimited by age, gender, social class, or location. In 2022, HerTechHeroes contributed to our achievements: financial support to train 2000+ black women in our tuition-free cohort learning programmes supported 12 women with laptops provided network data to 300 women to aid learning. One of the laptop beneficiaries of the 3rd quarter in 2022, a TechTrailer named Ruth David, shared that she was excited to be selected for the laptop support as she usually worked with her office’s laptop, which restricted her from reaching certain levels in her UI/UX learning. HerTechTrail presents a new laptop to Ruth David A mother of one and design enthusiast, Nkechi Azunna, shared with us how being a laptop beneficiary of the Q4 2022 laptop support programme turned out to be one of her biggest highlights of the year. “Hertechtrail turned my wish into reality. Like I said, I always wanted to be in tech, but I didn’t have any idea how to start. Hertechtrail made it easy for me to start. I can’t remember being chosen for a gift before, and one that I really needed at that time, so it was quite remarkable for me.” Tech Mom, Nkechi Azunna Our community manager, Idongesit Akpan, shared this with us: “Before becoming the community manager of HerTechTrail in June, I was a trainee in the digital marketing track of Cohort 3. During my training, I was given data support various times for emerging the student of the week from my track. It gave me encouragement and strength to finish the three months. I also got a laptop from the Q2 2022 laptop support programme. My journey as a digital marketer has been made easier since then.” Idongesit Akpan, Community Manager at HerTechTrail The story of Claire Igwe (our current Academy Director) is an amazing one. Having graduated from the academy in the very first cohort and now being a part of HerTechHeroes- contributing to the lives of other black women, she still amazes everyone that comes across her story. Imagine if she didn’t get trained. Just imagine. She went from being a total newbie to working remotely from Nigeria. The stories above are just a small fraction of the momentum and impact being created by the programme. The lives of black women in tech are improving daily, and we’re glad for the current HerTechHeroes who are making this happen. Currently, we have over 10 heroes in the programme, and it is open to willing members so we can all work together to achieve more. This year, we intend to achieve a lot more than we did in 2022 and touch as many lives as possible in and out of Africa. Would you love to join hands with us as we solve the problem of global inclusion in tech? Check out the programme for full details (registration, activation and rewards). WE CAN’T WAIT TO HAVE YOU JOIN HerTechHeroes!
Tag Archives: HerTechTrail Academy
Apr
Women are being awesome friends to each other in the most amazing ways that are great for progressing their careers. This series will bring you sweet, and encouraging stories of female friendships among techies every month. Be sure to come back for more! This month, I got talking to a TechTrailer- she currently works as a product designer and volunteers to coach UI/UX design with a non-profit organisation. She shares with us how amazing her female friends have been to her in ways that are great both for her and her career. Hi Sis, what do you think about the term ‘women supporting women’ and how female friendships can help a tech sis make significant progress in her tech career? First, let me say one thing: I wish we didn’t have to live in a world where there was that demarcation. I wish we lived in a world where we don’t need to have discussions about equal rights, like that kind of world where it’s not even a thought, like, why do I have to have that conversation where everybody is equal normally? I know the feeling, yeah. I wish we lived in that kind of world, but I know the kind of world we live in. One thing is that I’m a very introverted person, but the friendships I’ve had in my life that have added things to me, to be very honest, are with women. That’s why I don’t like it when people bash female friendships by saying things like, “Women will do you this or that.” People will do you shege! That’s the truth! It’s not about women; it’s about people. A person who is bad is bad, regardless of whether they’re a woman or a guy. A person will show you shege if they’re bad. Source: Pexels Let me say that I’m biased toward women. If I see an opportunity, and I know a lot of people like that, the first person I’ll think about is a female friend. Let me put it this way: Recently, a friend called me up, and in most cases, I’ve not spoken to this person in a really long while; they just call me, say there’s an opportunity, and ask if I’m interested. Most of the lasting friendships where I might not even speak to them for a while yet, but when we meet up or talk on the phone, we still have a lot to talk about, are female friendships. I know that some people might have a different experience, but for me, that’s the experience I have. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have male friends, but they’re very few, like very few, and it’s easy for the relationship to die down, unlike my female friendships. There are people I went to school with, and I graduated from OAU (Obafemi Awolowo University) in 2018, and that’s been many years. We might not speak for a long while, but when we do, there’s still that rapport and that friendship. there’s no thought or fear of them thinking badly of me or anything like that. I know they have my best interests in mind. That’s how I feel about female friendships. Awesome! I can relate to having great female friends because that’s my current reality. I feel bad when people bash female friendships too and I realise it stems from the experiences they have had. I’m hoping many more women come to experience the comfort and support of female friends who truly have their backs. Do you want to try guessing the identity of this TechTrailer? Go right ahead! Did you enjoy reading this? It might be your story next. If you’d love to be featured, reach out to @Wonu.Wealth in the general community on Slack. If you’re not there yet, you are welcome to join us.
Apr
If you’re interested in how a woman can go from being a total newbie in the very first cohort of the HerTechTrail Academy to being a tech sis who now earns in hard currency—the USD type specifically—you want to read this conversation to the last sentence. Source: Zikoko Memes Disclaimer: She did not take part in a get-rich-quick scheme, she put in hard work smartly! Big Woman! Let’s jump right in. You were in cohort 3, right? Hahaha! Cohort One. ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Yeah, I’m serious. You’re the proper definition of “day one”! In fact, before Cohort 1, before HerTechTrail had Cohort 1 proper, we had this very short boot camp. It lasted 2 weeks or so, during which Alex taught UI design. That was my first introduction to product design. In fact, before I saw that ad, because it was on Twitter I saw it- “Come and learn product design for free.” Before I saw that ad, I honestly didn’t know the meaning of product design. I decided to give it a try because I was already learning HTML and CSS, and with how it was presented, I felt like it was related, so I decided to give it a try. I went for the boot camp. It was pretty interesting; it was my first introduction to anything related to product building and design, so to speak. I decided I was going to move forward with it, but the cohort hadn’t started properly, so I had to find other ways to learn. After the two-week boot camp, there were about 3 or 4 people who finished and were serious about it. We were still having meetings with Alex; he was giving us small projects and all of that. I wanted to learn more, so I started attending other boot camps. When I saw that HerTechTrail was going to do a proper cohort kind of boot camp, I decided to jump in, and we were very few during that cohort; a lot of people didn’t take it seriously, to be honest, and it wasn’t as organised as it is now. At the time, only Alex and one other person taught, and we only had a product design track; we didn’t have a UI/UX track. I was in another boot camp then, but I still wanted to do this one. I followed through. Source: Pexels One thing about me is that when I’m doing something, I actually take it seriously, no matter what it is. Once I put my mind to it, I take it seriously and will see it to the end; unless there’s something big or serious enough to cut short my progress, that’s the only way I’d stop it. They gave us a project—you know, the capstone project. The way we did it then was that we had an idea, and different groups would do it. We were only three then, and one person said her laptop was faulty, the other person wasn’t even around, so I ended up being the only one doing the whole thing, and afterwards, I graduated as the best student overall. Source: Pexels AHAHN from cohort one? First ever! Hahaha! From there, Gloria asked if I could help with the designs—the day-to-day designs and all that. I said I could do it. I’d already done a few projects on Fiverr, so I was a bit more confident in myself. I started doing that, and from there she said, “You’re going to be coaching next,” and in my mind I’m thinking, “Eh! I’m going to be doing what?” I love it! Ei God! I was so scared. Like, my first class, eh? Omo! It was scary, but at this point, I’m so glad that she put me in that position where I had to start teaching people because you never know how much you know until you start trying to tell people about it. You begin to think, “Oh! So I know all this stuff? You become more confident in your skills and in speaking to people. Do you get it? Yeahhh You become more confident in speaking to people, and that helped me a lot. Then I started coaching, and the next cohort will be my third bootcamp with HerTechTrail as a coach. Wow! That’s profound. I didn’t know you were with HerTechTrail even before cohort 1. Yes, lol. Me and HerTechTrail have been together for a long time. How far back was this? How long ago was it when you started with HerTechTrail? The first short bootcamp I told you about was in November 2020, which I remember vividly. The first proper bootcamp was, I think, around April 2021. Okay! So you’ve had this very interesting journey with HerTechTrail so far, and one of the strong points for us is that we’re helping women build not just tech careers but proper, sustainable tech careers. Yeah… I know your story is very sweet in this aspect because you’ve had freelance experience. You’ve left Naira for people who have Naira and are now earning in dollars, in hard currency. Please give us that part of the gist. Source: Zikoko Memes Okay. As I said, my first ever paid job was in December 2021, and it was a job I did on Fiverr. You know freelance jobs can be tricky; they don’t come all the time. I was looking for something more stable. HerTechTrail referred me to a company looking for a product designer, and I was going to be their first and only product designer. Omo! It was scary because, in my mind, I still felt like I was a learner. How could I be their first and only product designer? I had the interview, and it went well. To be honest, with UI/UX my first salary was less than #150k. It was a remote role, and that’s what made it better for me because, you see, waking up every morning to an office, omo! I don’t think I can do that in […]