Precious Ngwube, a member of our core team, came up with the idea of a 4-week Javascript series. On planning in a core team meeting, we sought out to 6 weeks instead. The first four weeks were for learning, while the last two were for community building.

Emmanuel Chukwuemeka (Officialemeka) was the lead for design in our GDSC. He suggested the addition of UI/UX design as a learning track to the program. We then named the event: DES & DEV Bootcamp (… DESign and DEVeloper).

At that time, I doubled as both GDSC lead and Genesys Campus Club lead in AE-FUNAI. As a result, I organized the series in honor of these two brands (GDSC and Genesys). Hence, promotions of the event included logos of both GDSC and Genesys.

Planning

We had meetups every Saturday during the six weeks of the Bootcamp. The first four weeks entailed intensive learning. During this time, participants completed small projects individually. They submitted their projects by each meetup. In the last two weeks, participants built projects in teams, which they showcased on the demo day.

Planning and promotions took us three weeks, making the Bootcamp start by the third Saturday of April. We first chose Convocation Arena as the event venue. Victor Amaechi, Ephraim Leo, and I designed the flyers we used for promotions across the Bootcamp. Jennifer Mbuton, Emere Michael, and Victor alternated the job of moderator during each Saturday.

Michael and Victor took care of promoting the Bootcamp. They broadcasted the event online and offline. All promotions included a central call-to-action: the event registration form at https://bit.ly/desdev21 (it’s, of course, closed by now). I stopped the form from collecting responses by the third week of learning. We recorded 252 responses at this closure. Unarguably, Michael and Victor’s efforts reaped great fruits.

Officialemeka was in charge of the design track. He curated content and defined deliverables of participants in design. Specifically, he created an notion.so board to guide the learning of design participants. Obinna Ukoha (Obisco) was also a design mentor. He, together with Officialemeka, helped designers during unblocking sessions on the Saturday meetups.

Emmanuel Uchenna (Eunit) was in charge of the web developer track. Ihechikara, Joshua Akachi, and I were the other web development mentors. We assisted web development learners during the Bootcamp. They carried out and submitted tasks assigned by Eunit each week.

As students, we couldn’t meet with learners every day. We gave participants resources, to learn from during the week. We assisted them with learning in Whatsapp groups and on Saturday meetups. Each Saturday meetup had its separate agenda. Most of the time, it involved unblocking sessions, solving difficulties in participants’ learning journey. The following are what happened during each meetup.

Intro Meetup — Sat. 17th April 2021

Check out the pictures of the event at https://gdsc.community.dev/e/mc6aun/

The day’s program involved an introductory session and then a parallel session. I was on stage during the first session. Initially, I described what communities programs were and spoke on GDSC and Genesys. I then explained the Bootcamp’s structure, what we expected of the participants, and what the participants expected from us. You can check out the following slide.

We separated the audience in two. On the right were web development participants, while on the left were UI/UX design participants. Eunit and Officialemeka addressed each group, respectively. They introduced the objectives and demands of each learning track. They, together with other mentors, assisted the participants in setting up their development environment (for developers), and Figma accounts for UI/UX designers.

We were surprised by the number of attendees. We had up to 80 people in attendance. This Bootcamp was the first in-person/physical event we publicized this much. Our promoters did their job well (Thanks to Michael and Micode). Asides from their presence, the commitment of these was also mind-blowing. They promptly followed up with the event. Those who didn’t have laptops paired up with those who had. We were impressed.

We had some challenges with the projector and with power. The person who delivered the projector to us forgot to bring the power cable of the projector. Consequently, we couldn’t project the slides during the event. Concerning electricity, I thank Festus Ali, Onyinyechi Gilbert, and NFCS for providing us with generators. As of the Bootcamp, the school had not yet powered Convocation Arena, so these generators helped us. We provided fuel for them.

Google Forms was also part of the “challenges” story. We created a Google Form for collecting submissions of individual projects across the weeks. However, Google Forms kept on blocking the form, that the form violated their policies. The fields in the form were: name, email address, phone number, learning track, and submission link. We didn’t know which policy we violated.

This blocking forced me to create a custom submission form. We used it to collect participants’ submissions across the Bootcamp. I built the frontend of the form with HTML, CSS, and vanilla JavaScript (without any helper libraries or frameworks). I then made the form to submit to a Google Sheet we had set for that purpose. That way, we could monitor submissions.

At the end of the intro meetup, we took a group picture. The participants went home, and we expected to submit what they had built before the weekend. UI/UX design participants had to replicate the Google Search page. Web development participants were to develop a simple portfolio for themselves.

Week 1 — Sat. 24th April 2021

Check out the pictures of the event at https://gdsc.community.dev/e/mwc8k8/

The day’s program had only one activity: grouped learning. Learners clustered around mentors and followed along on how to carry out the task they were to submit. We had new members. Some persons from the previous week didn’t attend. The meetup was still at Convocation Arena. Festus and Gilbert still helped us with generators. We didn’t bother getting a projector, and we didn’t get any again till the demo day.

Feedback from learners made us understand that clustered learning was helpful. Participants explained that the grouped learning provided some personalized experience, given the community. We took pictures, posted them on social media, and rewarded those with the highest tweets. By the next week, UI/UX designers were to submit the landing of a restaurant app, while web developers were to submit a countdown timer built with JavaScript.

GDSC AE-FUNAI on Twitter: "pic.twitter.com/0NtUoswrOy / Twitter"

pic.twitter.com/0NtUoswrOy

Managing the Bootcamp was demanding to the core team members and me. I got more persons into the core team to help various sectors. We had a core team meeting on Monday evening after week 1. There, we discussed and made plans towards [demo day](get-the-link). We also set the day’s program for week 2’s meetup. I motivated everyone to keep volunteering as balancing academics and sacrificing for the Bootcamp wasn’t easy on both mentors and other non-technical core team members.

We changed the venue of the meetups to [Faculty of Humanities](get-the-link). Wait why? Well, because of electricity; so that we won’t spend on fuel any longer. After all, other organizations in school had started using Convocation Arena on Saturdays for their events, so we meuved.

Week 2 — Sat. 1st May 2021

Check out the pictures of the event at https://gdsc.community.dev/e/m6xbzq/

This Saturday was a little different. Eunit spoke on “Documenting one’s tech journey”, and got participants to write their stories on Medium. Below are some stories from Community members, please read them:

• Chinwendu Onyeani: My Journey to DESIGN
• Faith Olohijere: Being A Designer
• Echetanna Nwankwo: I’m enjoying this UI/UX design journey …
• Vinny Vics: My Tech Journey
• …

Collins Anudu guided the audience on registering for GitHub Student Developer Pack. Jason Anosike guided the audience on registering for the Google Africa Developer Scholarship. We equally continued the day with unblocking sessions and clustering mentors and learners together.

We modified the submission form to collect everyone’s Medium story. We stopped submissions as participants were not following up on the homework pattern we had designed. We took community pictures and ended the meetup.

Week 3 — Sat. 8th May 2021

Check out the pictures of the event at https://gdsc.community.dev/e/mpk3hr/

We continued week 3’s meetup in one of the halls in the Faculty of Humanities building. We had just one agenda for the day: clustered learning/unblocking sessions. Participants by this time had made many friends in the community. Those to meddle/learn with were no longer an issue. People learned more stuff. We had new participants who joined the program given that their friends had invited them, and they’ve been hearing about DES & DEV on campus.

I want to especially appreciate our mentors at this point. They technically were so involved in helping the learners that they didn’t have time for themselves. This is because participants met the mentors at other times during the week, not just on Saturday meetups. It’s not easy to volunteer! Thank you mentors of DES & DEV.

Obumuneme Nwabude on Twitter: "Mentoring and Organizing is beautiful when the participants are following up and making progress. Today's workshop (Week 3) involved unblocking sessions and clustered learning.Come for our demo day on May 29th where we'll showcase what we've built 😎#weAreGenesys#GDSCAEFUNAI pic.twitter.com/Lbvn4rvkEj / Twitter"

Mentoring and Organizing is beautiful when the participants are following up and making progress. Today's workshop (Week 3) involved unblocking sessions and clustered learning.Come for our demo day on May 29th where we'll showcase what we've built 😎#weAreGenesys#GDSCAEFUNAI pic.twitter.com/Lbvn4rvkEj

Week 4 — Sat. 15th May 2021

Check out the pictures of the event at https://gdsc.community.dev/e/mpxpeu/

The 4th Saturday of learning had come. I started feeling a little fulfilled that the Bootcamp had been up for a month and activities were progressing in peace. No violence. No casualties. Well, such peace was till the Bootcamp ended. Thank God.

We had reduced attendees this Saturday. Churches that use the halls in Humanities Faculty disturbed our meetup as they had some programs that day. Consequently, we held our meetup for only half as much of the time we normally have our event.

We were entering the two weeks of community building. We attempted grouping participants into teams of Design and Web Developers. The grouping had flaws because some members were absent. We called for unscheduled meetings during the week to get participants ready for demo day.

Unscheduled Meetings & Demo Day Rehearsals

On the next two Saturdays, 22nd and 29th May, we (community members) met. But this time, our meetings were not publicized and we were focused on what each team was to build and how they were to demo on the demo day.

We reviewed the teaming, remixed participants, and analyzed the products been built. Teams prepared and rehearsed their presentations. We aided/motivated participants and took more pictures.

We had more time (an extra week) for the community projects because we postponed the demo day. We postponed the demo day to Saturday 5th June (instead of 29th May) as a result of Biafran insecurities in the South East (of Nigeria) — interstate movements were not permitted. It gave us more time to rehearse and plan better for the demo day in all ramifications.

Bootcamp DEMO Day 🥺😎🥳🎉🎉

• There was food and drinks.
• Jerry Uke spoke on “Community Advocacy”.
• We had a mini-hackathon.
• Demoed 6 community projects.
• Awarded prizes.
• There was food and drinks.
• …

Demo Day is worth its own story.

From when I became GDSC Lead, I had always wanted to organize a demo day. I believe that showcasing what we build helps in maintaining the community spirit. Seeing a demo day come to life gave me some unforgettable joys 🙈.

I was happy on Demo Day because, in totality, we had achieved more community members in our school, created more awareness for tech, and had organized a great event. I was overjoyed because the Bootcamp had finally come to an end (couldn’t wait for this) as I could now rest from weekly consecutive meetups.

Up Next: Demo Day

Please read about the Bootcamp DEMO Day at the following:

About 2021 DES & DEV Bootcamp was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

My name is Victor. I’ve always had a thing for the media and the tech world at large. My love for tech and media is a compliment to my introverted personality. I enjoy playing on computers and mobile screens. Ranging from social media to surfing the internet, I either explore information or download stuff. As an introvert, my love for tech and media increased more as I discovered even more! and learned numerous skills the media world has to offer.

How it Started

Two years ago, I was privileged to be in a “Google Digital Skills for Africa” seminar in my school (AE-FUNAI) where I gained exposure and experience on much digital marketing and how easy and accessible it is. Google Digital Skills for Africa helped me understand how broad the digital world is. It also served as a guide to choosing an area of specialization in digital.

I’ve Designed

And now! I’ve ventured into the UI/UX design track and I’m excited about the process and all. it feels good to be in the tech world.

Obumuneme Nwabude

DSC AE-FUNAI

Emmanuel Chukwuemeka

#GDSCAEFUNAI #weAreGenesys

My Tech Journey was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Design is Life!

I’m fascinated by good designs. I’m attracted to eye-appealing arts. Colors and layouts always draw my attention.

Funny enough, I was never good at anything meant for the eyes to admire. Drawing was never my thing. I scored F at ordinary sketches and simple technical drawings.

I became sad at some point. I had assumed that I needed to be an exceptional artist before I could make any progress in design. Worse? I criticized people’s designs without proposing corrections nor knowing how to design. I grew sadder, as I couldn’t come up with anything to boast about. I would criticize myself: “You can’t do anything worth looking at, and yet you dare criticize people’s work.” 😥

The Journey

This has always been my fate until I joined the Google Developer Student Clubs on my campus. From there, I also joined Genesys Campus Club. A while after joining, the two clubs collaborated and organized a Bootcamp (DES & DEV). The Bootcamp had two tracks: UI/UX design and web development.

I chose UI design, after all that’s what I’ve always loved. The Bootcamp was to last for six weeks. We were in week two and my terrible drawing skills haven’t improved.

However, the bootcamp made me confident to start designing. It let me know that I don’t need to be a great artist to make great designs. And that sincerely has made all the difference.

I am now enjoying my UI/UX design journey. I can now comfortably criticize any work without having to beat myself up later😅😂. I’m loving it❤️. And that’s because I was able to do this 👇

Thank You!

Emmanuel Chukwuemeka, Obumuneme Nwabude, DSC AE-FUNAI #weAreGenesys #GDSCAEFUNAI

I’m enjoying this UI/UX design journey … was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

When I heard about the Des & Dev Bootcamp from a friend, I knew I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by. I attended the meetup the next day. Believe me, I’m so enjoying that decision right now😁.

It was my first community experience and I never knew clubs like the DSC AE-FUNAI existed in my school. I was so delighted to know about it.

On the first day of the Bootcamp, I met a lot of designers and developers. They included persons that were more “techie” than me. I was marveled and quite intimidated.

As the meetup continued, I observed that no one tried to show off their knowledge. I was so amazed by the way the GDSC lead Obumuneme Nwabude and other experts handled the beginners with so much patience. I started my UI/UX Design journey and have made various designs.

I designed a clone of the Google Search page, check it out:

From the Bootcamp, I learned the importance of having an online presence. In fact, I’ve worked towards getting it for myself.

I learned how to be confident in myself — how to post my work even if it could be better. I also learned some rare and special design tips from our design lead, Emmanuel Chukwuemeka

There a lot of benefits to being a UI/UX designer. I’m so glad to be one! (well, one in the making😹). Apart from this being a hobby, it could also be my career choice. Of course, I can actually make a profit from this 😎.

The best thing about this Bootcamp is that it’s totally FREE! My excitement was tripled when I heard this.

I’m looking forward to learning more things and showing them off. I’m sooooooooo excited to be a part of this.

Thank you, Google!!!❤️

Being A Designer was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

So much content, so much I wanted to do, so many pictures, … and they were all in my head. This was how it started for me: a passion to tell stories with pictures and designs. These were all I had for a start. I tried my hands on various tools and lessons. Unfortunately, they made little or no impact to satisfy the hunger in me.

The journey started as a high school graduate with so many visions of what the world could look like. Oh, if only you could have a look at the beautiful things in my head!

Having no prior design knowledge was a hard obstacle to achieving my dreams. Worse? I didn’t even know the tools I would be needing.

I started making efforts …

This was my reality for a while. Then when I spent time with the internet and the wonderful repositories of content (Youtube, Coursera, Udemy, …), the story started changing. Thanks to these platforms, I started working towards where I had always wanted to be. They became my trusted tutor and companion for the journey.

I kept on striving …

At that stage, things were getting interesting and the hunger kept increasing. I knew I needed more resources. I continued trying new things on a daily basis. The passion kept growing. But then, it was still me and the available internet resources. I needed something more practical. I decided to take things to the next level.

My first jobs

Having learned a few basic design elements, I had to satiate myself. At that point, I was not yet good enough to work on paid projects. I volunteered in designing graphics for my friends and some organizations. In turn, I received constructive criticisms and got better at what I do.

These were my first clients. Their jobs were worth the effort. Every new birthday card, anniversary poster, flyer, and other designs were greeted with positive feedback. All these inspired me to put in more effort.

Though at times, some of my designs received harsh feedback, I didn’t give up. I had two options: get out or get better. Of course, I stayed put and entered into the next phase of my journey: collaboration.

Collaborating

I moved from doing things alone to learning in a team. As the saying goes: “No one is an island”.

This new approach became my solid link to doing things and doing them in better ways. I became more creative working with people — something I would not achieve alone. It was within my circle that I got informed about the Google Developer Student Clubs. I couldn’t wait to join them.

DSC AE-FUNAI is the home of enthusiastic individuals in technology. It was easy for me to meet people in GDSC. I learn from them and collaborate with them to build various products. I take part in different programs that have catapulted my skills.

DES & DEV Bootcamp

One of such events was the DES & DEV Bootcamp. It was a program in which participants learned either UI/UX Design or Web Development (One had to choose only one learning track). During the DES & DEV Bootcamp, I made various sleek and mind-blowing designs.

Check out the Google Search Clone I designed with Figma:

Special thanks to Obumuneme Nwabude, the GDSC lead who put in immeasurable efforts to organize different events like this Bootcamp. Also thanks to Emmanuel Chukwuemeka, the UI/UX Design mentor for the program. I also appreciate all the core team members that made DES & DEV this fruitful.

GDSC and these awesome volunteer leaders have taught me things I didn’t know. They have also become a great part of my design journey, which is this story I’m telling.

I hope my journey continues to my expected destination, but while I’m on it, let the fun CONTINUE!!!

Thank You!

My Journey to DESIGN was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

School had resumed. Lectures had began. Friends met each other 🥰. Everyone felt the long one-year holiday (due to the COVID19 lockdown and ASUU strike. Google had announced that registrations for the 2021 Solution Challenge were open 🥳.

Planning

I met with the core team and we discussed holding an In-Person/Physical Solution Challenge Info Session. The aim was to sensitize for the 2021 Solution Challenge in our community, drive registrations, and follow up participation.

For the venue, we chose Mercury Relaxation Centre. It was a new eatery in perm site and was close to Agric Audit. We chose it because it has a wide space outside (ventilated for the meetup). The event held on Saturday, 20th February.

We scheduled the event to start at 10 am but began by 1 pm. The lateness was due to some members coming late, … we are sorry 😕.

Be Techie

We began with Precious Ngwube (better known as “Nwoke Nnewi”), a software developer, speaking on Be Techie.

He told his story about how the first time he got to Andela’s office in Lagos. How that experience exposed him to tech communities and volunteering. He spoke on collaboration, open-source internships, digital marketing, and technical writing: all as activities one can do in the tech space. His speech was the best fit for the first physical meetup we had in our community, since its inception. The content of his talk is highlighted in the slide below.

I can’t exclude the fact that Nwoke Nnewi’s talk was motivated by Aniedi Udo TEDx talk in Port Harcourt, where he spoke on “Bridging the gap between industry and academia”. Thanks, sir Aniedi. You can find Aniedi’s TEDx talk on YouTube at https://youtu.be/bneP1GxUiUE

Barter App Giveaway

Victor Amaechi was the Flutterwave ambassador for our school, for the Barter App. In light of partnership and community spirit, Victor had a short session, where he explained about Barter, got the community members to install the app, and shared gifts (money) with them through the app.

Speaking on Solution Challenge

2021’s Solution Challenge, aimed at solving (with software), any or a combination of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs). It was a global competition where teams with a maximum of 4 members were to submit their solutions. Participants were all DSC members, irrespective of the institution the student was attending.

The competition expected that the solution must have been tested. That it already had an iteration/modification based on user feedback. And that the code be available (for grading) through any cloud-hosted version control system (like GitHub, GitLab, or BitBucket).

The 2021 Solution Challenge involved using at least one or more of the many Google Technologies to build solutions. The submission deadline for the Solution Challenge was 31st March. After that date, submissions were to be graded by Google according to a preset judging system.

The top 50 teams were to emerge as winners and were to be announced by May. These winners were to continue building and from them, the top 10 finalist teams were to be announced. The best 3 teams were to be selected from these ten as final winners of the 2021 Solution Challenge. Rewards for winners included mentorship from Google, Pluralsight subscription, swags, Chromebooks, etc…

I spoke on the Solution Challenge and got the attending members to register at goo.gle/solutionchallenge (the registration website). In turn, they received their google.dev badge as registrants of the 2021 Solution Challenge. Below is the slide I used, it contains more info about the 2021 Solution Challenge.

I like the 2021 Solution Challenge because we were expected to submit at least a Minimum Viable Product of whatever solution we chose. With this, we did not need to make the solution perfect. The solution just needed to have the minimum features that will make it usable. As such, one could keep building on the solution even after submitting it.

I also like the Solution Challenge because it focused on the UNSDGs. So while getting community members to use their technical skills for great rewards, the challenge made them solve our locality problems. After all, that’s what DSC is out for 😉😎.

The meetup was all fun.

We had varying sessions of fastest finger giveaways for airtime (recharge card pins). We networked with each other and took many pictures. We had a social media competition that involved having the highest reactions on your tweet/post about the event. Treasure won the social media competition and went home with her prize.

Treasure🎀 on Twitter: "#DeveloperStudentClubs #DSC#DSCAEFUNAI pic.twitter.com/PeWmySPQMA / Twitter"

DeveloperStudentClubs #DSC#DSCAEFUNAI pic.twitter.com/PeWmySPQMA

We also had a Kahoot game where members played competitively on simple quiz questions about DSC and the event. The Kahoot entertained everybody. You needed to see the smiles and jumps when people ranked highest per round of the ten questions 😍. Out of the 20 attending members, Victor came third, Precious second, and Leo first. They all went home with their prices 🥳.

ecorun.com.ng

The meetup drew to an end. We were to go and start building for Solution Challenge. Just before we closed, Joshua Akachi and Victor Chukwuebuka marveled us all with a demo of a product they have built for the use of everyone. In a nutshell, Ecorun is an e-commerce and social media in one place. Do sign up there today!

Ecorun

Know more about what happened during the 2021 Solution Challenge Meetup at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m8tk74/

Follow-up Workshop

To help the community members in building for the Solution Challenge, we organized a workshop where we told them more about the Solution Challenge. We compared everyone’s skills and teamed up members. We followed them up later towards building for the Solution Challenge. We made sure that only those who consented and were willing to participate were put in teams. The workshop held on Wednesday, 3rd March from 5 to 6.30 pm (after lectures/classes).

Know more about what happened during the workshop at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m872ak/

My take-home

Leadership is beautiful when people are supporting you. It’s one thing to have a good core team, it’s another to have them helping out in various tasks. Across the events, the core team managed different activities so well. As such, we recorded no failures nor disappointments. Thanks, guys!

Next steps

There was academic pressure on all of us. Courtesy of the long time we spent at home, the school had to rush activities to catch up with the academic calendar. We would have lost a session if not for the rush. Lectures were compressed. Exams were being written in March (at the peak of Solution Challenge). The follow-up was effective but we didn’t get to complete/submit our solutions, because we could not withstand the academic pressure.

Notwithstanding, we have started planning towards having a Web Developer Bootcamp on campus in April and May. RSVP (indicate your attendance) for the event at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mc6aun/

#DeveloperStudentClubs #DSC #SolutionChallenge #DSCAEFUNAI #AE-FUNAI

2021 Solution Challenge was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Kelly murmured the idea to me after she had spoken with Mercy. This was around the last but one Friday of our Firebase Series. It was a good opportunity for me because the event chain in DSC AE-FUNAI would continue. It was good for our communities because they would learn to use tools we can’t do without in today’s coding world (Git and GitHub).

We ended up being six leads for six Developer Student Clubs chapters that came together to organize and bring out this GitHub event. We were:
1. Kelechi for DSC Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO)
2. Stephen for DSC Federal University Lokoja (FULOKOJA)
3. Tabitha for DSC Makerere University Business School (MUBS)
4. Mercy for DSC Federal Polytechnic Nekede (NEKEDE)
5. Johnson for DSC Uganda Institute of Information and Communications Technology (UICT)
6. Myself for DSC Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike Ikwo (AE-FUNAI)
With two DSC chapters from Uganda and four of us from Nigeria.

The event was in light of #Hacktoberfest. We, six leads, wanted our community members to win polos during Hacktoberfest. So, we wanted to teach them how easy it could be to send pull requests. After all, this year’s Hacktoberfest was entirely opt-in and it was not compulsory for your pull request to be merged.

#EndSARS & Uganda Election Crisis

I don’t know if both crisis intentionally showed themselves one after another, but I can assure you that our event took place much much later than we planned because of postponements due to both of them.

The #LekkiMassacre took place on 20th Oct 2020, a Tuesday. All things being equal, our GitHub event was to take place on the following Friday, 23rd Oct. But a week or more earlier than the #LekkiMassacre, we had indefinitely postponed the GitHub Event because of #EndSARS. The emotional instabilities were really much. Many of us were protesting and we techies are the most harmed by the police. That’s why we were advocating for #EndPoliceBrutality and hence, could not proceed with the GitHub event. DevFests in many Nigerian towns was postponed too. In fact, Auwal explained to us, six leads, that whether #HacktoberFest or not, we will still need to teach Git and GitHub to our community members because they will need it in other projects, especially the upcoming Solution Challenge.

We had rescheduled the event to a date in November and had to postpone it again because of the Ugandan Election Crisis. It happens that the current Ugandan president does not want to leave the seat. He then arrested presidential candidates and Ugandans embarked on peaceful protests. The military fired at civilians and that’s how the crisis began. Somewhat similar to military firing at Lekki, in Lagos. The bottom line is these crises are part of the event’s story.

Nevertheless, the event still took place 😪.

Intro to Version Control | Git and GitHub

That was the final event title we chose. The event finally took place on Thursday, 26th Nov, 2 pm GMT. It was a youtube live at https://youtu.be/uf12u9keG10

More Obstacles

We, six leads, had no experience with Youtube live events 🤦‍♂️🤣. So we did not know that we needed some extra tools like Streamyard or OBS among others to achieve what we wanted; that is, switching between screens and various speakers for various sessions. We thought this feature was inbuilt in Youtube live, just to discover the opposite, three hours before our event. We eventually tried out many things and due to the frustration, we used a Youtube link, different from the one we had created. Not just that, we started about forty minutes late trying to setup streamyard in the highest emergency. We were at the point of postponing again, coupled with the time disappointment and confusion instilled on attendees. In fact, it’s safe to say that we had fewer attendees than expected because of the Youtube event link change 💔.

Tabitha was the moderator/host for the day. We had two speakers: Auwal MS, our program manager (actually program manager for DSC SSA [Sub Saharan Africa]), and myself. When it was time for me to talk, I had internet connectivity problems 💔💔💔. To cover up, daddy Auwal had to speak for me. Thanks, sir. Thanks, Tabi. You two deserve more appreciation.

Pull Requests

Auwal did a practical usage of GitHub during the event. He showed how to make a pull request as an attendee of this very GitHub event on a GitHub repository we had prepared for the event. So one had to fork the repo, add their details to an attendees.json file, commit and send a pull request. When the pull request has been merged, a Firebase Deploy GitHub action, that had been set on the repo, will run. It will actually redeploy the site we had created for attendees with the attendee details added.

After Auwal had made the repo’s first pull request during the event, others followed suit later on. The repo used for the event is at https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/github-event. Whereas, the event site on which successful pull requests reflected on is at https://githubevent.web.app

Successful Pull Requests and Attendees of "Intro to Version Control | Git and Github" by Developer Student Clubs

My take-home

I took much, home this time around. There is just much the experience exposed me to than I could write. Above all, I think this event thought me the value of community. We help each other in the Developer Student Clubs. I wonder what would have been our fate, if not for the other leads in this collaboration, for Auwal, or for the many others who assisted in anything concerning the event that I didn’t mention about. They are all of the community, and our participation grows us in one way or the other.

Next steps

Special appreciation to my colleagues, the leads with whom I collaborated to host this event. I also thank the attendees especially those who bore the event delay with us and sent pull requests.

After this event, we proceeded to prepare for the End of Year Party. The year has been tough and we can’t wait for a new calendar, but let’s celebrate our lives in this one. See you there!!!

Event Link: https://dsc.community.dev/e/m9qcya/

GitHub Event was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It was getting to two months after DSC AE-FUNAI was born. We had had our info session and weekend learnings of the Firebase Series. This was around October’s ending and we should have done the GitHub event by then in honor of #HactoberFest which unfortunately was postponed due to the #EndSARS crisis.

#EndSARS is an advocacy by we, Nigerian youths, to #EndPoliceBrutality. The protests were draining to our emotional health. It was a second round of #StaySafe in Nigeria after the COVID19 period. We had to halt DSC activities 😫.

Things later came back to normal and at some point, we had to continue with our lives. To rejuvenate the community’s energy, we, in the core team, thought of hosting a Bootcamp, where we would have different learning tracks. We started planning towards it and decided to make its launch a lively one. We successfully had quizzes and award nights. In addition, we had a speaker session to inspire learning. (That was our first speaker session).

Emeka Odibeli, CMC.

Emeka Odibeli is a Certified Management Consultant (hence the CMC). Well, it's not about the management, but about him. His life, story, and self are great inspirations to anyone striving out there. He spoke during TEDx Abakiliki in 2019. He has been a trainer on “Google Digital Skills for Africa” for some years now. Of course, he is a certified trainer on digital skills and is a certified digital marketer. He is a mentor for the Tony Elumelu Foundation where he guides winners of the TEFfund to business success. He is the founder of StartRight Consults ...

There’s much more to Emeka Odibeli’s bio. He is old in the training, mentoring, and speaking fields. Just know that he is passionate about the success of youths and has worked towards that in many ways. He was the right person for this talk. Why? because of his secret. His secret? learning!!!

Learning Opportunities in Digital and The New Normal

I approached daddy Emeka to anchor the session for the community and he agreed. He himself chose the above title: “Learning Opportunities …” and did justice to it.

On stage (on Whatsapp), he told his story of missing university results for ten years which forced him not to depend on his degree but to learn. He explained the value of learning and learning with a plan. He asked everyone: “How much have you learned? And in the next one year what is your goal for Global relevance?” Three persons answered. One answer mentioned cybersecurity which he encouraged, saying that there is a global demand for it. He himself answered the question and did so with reasons and next steps. In his words:

“So this is mine: I am now without the aid of my degree… A digital skills trainer, digital marketer, certified management consultant, and currently an entrepreneurship consultant on youth development to the Delta State government. My goal is to up my consultancy services to the African Continent.”

“So to achieve this I have to ask what the world needs and what they are looking for.”

“Why learn so much if you remain broke? Furthermore, Why boast of certifications when you remain a local champion…”

He further explained that his reason for discussing what we had learned and our intentions for relevance was to make us understand that learning should be deliberate. That learning should be tied to specific purposes and above all, it should also be about the networks we want to play into. In his words:

“Your network is always going to determine your net worth”.

“Learning should be about unlocking relevant information required to change your state of being. So we all have to make learning go beyond changing title status and make it also about financial and community relevance”

“In financial relevance, we are self-sustained… In community relevance, you are given responsibility positions and money is also attached”

“So this is where I hit my prime point. We are all here and the next year is ahead of us. In 3 years I got 120 certifications and have moved from just a trainer with CBN to a consultant. I have moved from a digital skills trainer to a digital skills consultant, from just a business owner to owning 5 companies with 2 in the UK and I have never traveled out. I now plan to train 10000 persons on digital skills for Employability, Entrepreneurship, and Education across Delta state. I have been licensed by Global Entrepreneurship Week, Startup Grind, and Techsters Startup Week for 2021. These were once dreams. None by degree and all by learning. So, make up your mind where you want to be and what you want to be and who you want to become. As the opportunities roll out, dig in, eat much, and stay HUNGRY.”

“The future belongs to WE who DARE”

He got to the end of his talk, concluded, and wished us well. Many were inspired, motivated, and amazed. No questions came from the audience except for his social media handles which he shared and are as follows
* Twitter: @odibeliworld25
* Instagram: @odibeliworld
* LinkedIn: Odibeli Emeka

The talk took place on 13th Nov. from 8 pm to 10 pm. Know more about the event at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mbzuvd/

My take-home

Wow! 😱😱😱

That was much. That evening I brought back to life resolutions I had made much earlier.

In response to my own goal for global relevance, I decided to write more. Maybe not just stories like this one, but to write technically. Follow me on Medium for more of what I will write in the future at https://obumnwabude.medium.com

Next steps

Well, it's heartbreaking that after all the vibe and plannings, we did not get to carry out the Bootcamp we intended. We didn’t have enough mentors/tutors and might have over planned or were over expecting. I’m sorry 💔.

However, around the same time, planning for the GitHub event with other DSC leads was getting serious. 26th November was already close by.

Read on the GitHub event ...

Learning Opportunities was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Firebase is a Backend-as-a-Service from Google that you could use in building mobile and web apps. It’s not your app’s code itself, but it handles core features of your apps like user sign-in, database, notifications, saving media, analytics among others. In the procedure, you write less code/save time (rather than reinventing the wheel), focus more on building your application, and enjoy all the benefits of the Google Cloud Platform from your Firebase project. We chose Firebase because it is easy to use, quick to learn, and is incentive-based (one can share links of what they had deployed). We aimed at making the workshops short and every Friday we had a workshop. The Firebase Series as a whole also aimed at familiarizing the community members with the Firebase Console and the firebase deploy command.

Firebase Intro — Friday 18th Sep

The introduction to Firebase session by Ephraim Umunnakwe was more of a demo or showcase of using Firebase than explaining what Firebase is. He showcased/explained Hosting, Authentication, Firestore, and Storage one after the other. The event took place over Google Meet.

During the event, he created a Firebase project, and at that point, the project-id.web.app had no website in it and attendees testified. He deployed a simple site with the firebase deploy command and attendees checked and were surprised. He then redeployed again but this time the code now had a sign-in with Google feature. The attendees signed in with their Google accounts and Ephraim showed the users (under Authentication in the Firebase Console) of the Firebase project he had just created and all could see all those who had signed in. He again deployed but this time, the website had a chatbox whose messages synced in real-time with Cloud Firestore. Attendees dropped messages in the chatbox. He showed the Firestore section of the Firebase console and all could see as messages were being created and appearing in the console. The same was done for Cloud Storage as pictures were shared on the chatbox.

Ephraim’s secret was in using a GitHub repo that was prepared for the event. The repo had 4 git branches (hosting, auth, firestore, storage), aside from main that cumulatively had code specific to a feature being deployed. All he did was check out to each branch locally and run firebase deploy. The Github repo is at https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/firebase-intro

Know more about other things that happened at the event at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m4ghep/

Firebase Web Codelab — 25th Sep

During the weeks, we had short classes in the Whatsapp Group where various persons taught different things that helped the Friday workshops. We had classes on what applications, frontend, backend, servers, and clients were. There was also great support among community members helping each other where they could, especially to those that had problems using various technologies, not just Firebase.

To get the community members started, we organized a workshop around the Firebase Web Codelab. The workshop instructions were already in the codelab and all we had to do was follow and guide. The first workshop took place over Google Meet. Hilary anchored the workshop’s demo. He carried out the codelab step-by-step for others to follow along.

Know more about the First Codelab at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m8xfh4/

Firebase Web Codelab 2–2nd Oct

The community members gave feedback. Most complained that they could not keep to Google Meet because it was data-intensive and were not available in the afternoon (by 3 pm WAT). Not just that, the turn up for the codelab was low and the community members wanted to partake in the workshops. We organized the codelab a second time, but this time around in Whatsapp directly so that they could follow up even when not live. We originally intended to have the Firebase Series for just a month, that is 4 Fridays, but doubling the Firebase Web codelab made it 5.

Know more about the Second Codelab at https://dsc.community.dev/e/m6c35e/

Build your Portfolio Website for FREE — 9th Oct

Head over to practical gains. This time around we wanted relevant websites and not just the Firechat deployed from the Firebase Web Codelab. The simplest model of a portfolio we thought of was headshot image, name, bio, social media links, and gallery. We left it to others to modify as they wanted and we used GitHub to provide the sample and to outline the instructions. Check out https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/portfolio

Few of the persons that followed the portfolio workshop permitted me to share their deployments in this story, so here are their names and links.
* Silas Roneto — silasroneto.web.app
* Ephraim Ummunakwe — fir-funai.web.app
* Vincent Abba — myportfolio-354d1.web.app
* Obumuneme Nwabude (I also took part you know 😎) — obumnwabude.web.app

Know more of what happened during the portfolio building at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mjgxev/

DSC AE-FUNAI

Build MyNotes app with Firestore — 16th Oct

Cloud Firestore is a NoSQL document database, accessible from the frontend directly or mobile apps. No need for a server setup to read or write from the database. Ifeanyi taught about databases during the week and on Friday, members carried out the workshop. There was no authentication in the deployed MyNotes, the aim was just to use Firestore and explain Create, Read, Update and Delete operations over Documents and Collections in Firestore. There was definitely great support/assistance during deployment by members from the Whatsapp group too. The instructions are outline at https://github.com/DSC-AEFUNAI/mynotes

Know more of what happened during the building MyNotes at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mgffeb/

MyNotes

There is more to Firebase than we could do in a once-a-week, 5-week series, but for sure our aim was achieved. Our community members can now explain what Firebase is and they know the power of the firebase deploy command. We consequently had quizzes (with prizes) about Firebase, applications, and databases to make learning fun.

The best part of this story is the participation of community members. Their active participation is the community’s fuel. Those who did not have computers to use, used the Termux app, on their phones, to carry out Firebase steps that needed to be run on a terminal. Yes, this was stressful, but they really wanted to learn, and they went this far to be sure they learned all they could during the series. This Firebase Series also gave the tutors, an opportunity to teach. It was during the series that Ephraim, Hilary, and Ifeanyi got their first opportunity to be on stage. They were delighted to have been exposed to such an experience.

My take-home

Feedback is invaluable. Adapting to it is priceless. Community participation and performance grew when we switched from Google Meet to Whatsapp and repeated the Firebase Web Codelab. And such an increase for such is what any lead will want.

Next steps

#EndSARS came around. We had a halt in activities but that paved way to a great speaker session we had: “Learning Opportunities in Digital”

Read on Learning Opportunities …

Firebase Series was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I was just appointed as lead…

Auwal and Aniedi (our program managers) had just finished telling us, DSC SSA (Sub Saharan Africa) leads how to get started on DSC. That was on Wednesday, 26th August. Our next steps, as leads were clear:
* Choose a faculty advisor
* Choose core team members
* Host an info session

Those might seem simple but were a milestone for me, probably because I was the pioneer lead. I was literally afraid to embark on this one year tenure. I complained to Geek, alumni DSC Unilag lead, how scared I was to start. In his words: “It is a good thing that you are afraid. You being scared means you are ready to do your best.” I think I’m doing my best. Thanks, Geek.

I sincerely didn’t know how to do what I was to do. I needed more info and confidence. I read different articles from then outgoing (and experienced) DSC leads. How to (successfully) onboard your next DSC lead by Jonathan, 12 Months of Awesomeness: Lemons or Broccolis? by Bello, and of course Now, My Watch Has Ended by Geek himself. Was that enough? believe me, No!!! At that point, I wished that someone had handed over their tenure to me rather than me being a pioneer. After all, na me apply for DSC lead.

The story changed after spending time on CLP (Community Leads Platform). In CLP, you find all DSC leads, GDG organizers, WTM ambassadors, and all other Google Developers Community heads. In the platform, they share their experiences, inspirations, guides, and resources, you will ever need to build/grow a community. The first time I entered the platform, I spent 5 hours straight without leaving the browser. I learned things I will ever be grateful for. Consequently, I spent more time there (which I still do till today), and got the inspiration I needed. At that point, I was ready like an animal in its heat period.

Core Team

For faculty advisor, I chose Engr. Dr. Ngozi Eli-Chukwu, AE-FUNAI’s ICT director. She is the best matron DSC AE-FUNAI will ever have. Her agreeing to guide sincerely delighted me. Thanks, ma!

Choosing core team members was a fun adventure. In school, I’m in medicine and surgery and none of my coursemates are techie. Techies in my school, who should be willing to volunteer were suddenly scarce. Response and willingness were low. Later on, Precious came on board and he recommended the majority of the team.

The core team got us started in various ways: like creating and maintaining DSC AE-FUNAI’s social media handles and promoting the community. Their contributions to make DSC AE-FUNAI stand cannot be overemphasized. In fact, our core team Whatsapp group’s name is “You are the BEST!!!”. Shout out to the best core team ever. Some core team members joined the team much later, from the community. Whereas some left as they had become unavailable. For example, Victor Amaechi became ambassador for TheRootHub Abakiliki and had to build that community as well. Everyone in the slide below was once ever part of us. Thank you all for your inputs, especially Obiora for all the flyers and graphics he made for the community.

The Community

In the core team, we actively used (and are still using) the 7Ps of community. Our purpose was to create a peer-to-peer learning environment. The people comprised of any interested in computers, the majority being fellow students. Place was online (thanks to COVID19), over Whatsapp given that it's the most commonly used messaging platform here.

I created the Whatsapp group on 3rd Sep. and we all shared the link. We progressed to welcomes and introductions the next two nights after many had joined. The intros were one of a kind. Aside from sharing pics, details, and hustles, all who introduced themselves answered how they were into tech/computers and what they wanted to achieve in it. Answers were baffling and networking was strong. Those who were business persons also made sales. Well, that’s why it’s a community. The community members called my attention to also explain how I came this far. I ended up telling my story. Please read “My Developer Story” on Medium later on.

Info session

The Whatsapp group was all fun, jokes, and banter (and it's still till today, that’s the joy after all). We were to start with DSC related activities after the info session. The info session was to serve as a formal introduction and definition of DSC (which it did). For speakers, Precious recommended two AE-FUNAI alumni, Chinedu and Ezra, who are both developers at Cregital and Genesys, respectively. During the info session, they explained how much the community will help our student-lives and how the community culture will fuel each person’s progress. The event was held on Friday, 11th Sep. over Google Meet with 20 attendees.

Know more about it at https://dsc.community.dev/e/mm72hn/

My take-home

Helping to start DSC AE-FUNAI reaffirmed to me two solid principles
1. Everything is possible.
2. In life, you need people.

I was also exposed to other DSC communities. I got to know other leads in DSC SSA and was a speaker during DSC McPherson University Info Session.

Next steps

The Solution Challenge was to come in 4 months (by January 2021) and we were to prepare and guide our community members in taking part. We thought of organizing a 30 days Bootcamp to teach and help prepare the community members against the solution challenge. However, we didn’t embark immediately because it needed much planning and mentors were not readily available. To begin activities we embarked on a month-long Firebase Series. Every Friday we had a workshop and during the week we had follow-ups on what was learned.

Read on the Firebase Series …

Onboarding DSC was originally published in gdscaefunai on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.