{"id":6825,"date":"2021-08-30T11:38:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:38:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin-new\/?post_type=campus_story&p=6825"},"modified":"2021-08-30T11:38:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T16:38:50","slug":"from-the-other-side-of-the-world-girl-in-kenya-learns-computer-coding-at-uw-milwaukee","status":"publish","type":"campus_story","link":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/story\/from-the-other-side-of-the-world-girl-in-kenya-learns-computer-coding-at-uw-milwaukee\/","title":{"rendered":"From the other side of the world, girl in Kenya learns computer coding at UW-Milwaukee"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
At her home in Nairobi, Kenya, Elsie Maingi shows off the certificate and tote bag she received from the Girls Who Code program at UWM. (Photo courtesy of Lilian Wangechi)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The pandemic and a year of virtual schooling had an unexpected benefit for a little girl in Kenya who connected with Girls Who Code at UWM.<\/p>\n

\u201cI use the computer for school, and I wanted to understand more about how they work,\u201d said Elsie Maingi, who is 10 years old and lives in Nairobi.<\/p>\n

However, computer classes in Kenya were geared to high school students and business people and were usually quite expensive, said her mother, Lilian Wangechi.<\/p>\n

So in the fall of 2020, they turned to Google and found the free\u00a0Girls Who Code program at UWM<\/a>. Because of the time difference, Elsie got up at 2 a.m. for every class during that semester and the spring 2021 semester.<\/p>\n

Encouraging young women<\/h3>\n

The national\u00a0Girls Who Code<\/a>\u00a0program encourages young women of middle and high school age to get involved with computer sciences, according to Christine Cheng, an associate professor of computer science who launched UWM\u2019s program in 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we knew we were going to be online in the fall of 2020, it was a blessing in disguise because it allowed many people who were not living near UWM to attend classes,\u201d she said, \u201cbut Elsie was the only one from a different country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sammie Omranian, a graduate student and teaching assistant who manages UWM\u2019s program, said she was amazed at Elsie\u2019s persistence. \u201cIt was so surprising for me. I knew that she was from Kenya, but never thought about the time difference until her teacher, Anahita, told me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anahita Qashqai, a graduate student who is one of the program\u2019s teachers, also encouraged Elsie to overcome her shyness about using her English. Qashqai told her that English was also her second language since she grew up speaking Farsi. Another student piped up that her first language was Spanish. By the next class Elsie had turned on the camera, unmuted and was chatting away with her new friends and classmates from across the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter that she felt more involved and engaged,\u201d Omranian said. After falling a little behind for the first session because of the language concerns, Elsie quickly caught up. \u201cElsie was the only student who completed everything 100%,\u201d Omranian said.<\/p>\n

\u2018Awe for the amazing opportunity\u2019<\/h3>\n

When the second class finished in spring of 2021, Omranian sent Elsie the certificate and tote bag that all the students received. It took a few months to get to Kenya, but Elsie and her mom were so excited to get it that they sent a photo and a thank-you note.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u00a0Elsie\u00a0received her certificate from GWC and I can tell that it\u2019s one of her best days,\u201d Wangechi wrote in an email to Omranian. \u201cI look back at the year 2020 and am at awe for the amazing opportunity my daughter got at your program. She had always wanted to understand how computers work and her dream came true.\u201d<\/p>\n

The UWM program was the perfect answer to their needs, she added, with the only requirements being an internet connection and the ability to go to class early in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program has opened a new frontier for\u00a0Elsie that is boundless and she knows that her wildest dreams can come true. This is an experience as a parent that I could never have replicated,\u201d Wangechi wrote. \u201cWe say AHSANTE (THANK YOU) to everyone who made this possible \u2013 the tutors, program coordinators and the donors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pandemic and a year of virtual schooling had an unexpected benefit for a little girl in Kenya who connected with Girls Who Code at UWM. \u201cI use the computer for school, and I wanted to understand more about how they work,\u201d said Elsie Maingi, who is 10 years old and lives in Nairobi. However, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","institution":[107],"story_category":[],"class_list":["post-6825","campus_story","type-campus_story","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","institution-uw-milwaukee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story\/6825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campus_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/campus_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"institution","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/institution?post=6825"},{"taxonomy":"story_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wisconsin.edu\/all-in-wisconsin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story_category?post=6825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}