FOURTH & FINAL THREAD THREAD: Introduction to Data Science with Emzini weCode
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@erickhumz @emziniwecode
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@erickhumz @emziniwecode
Okay, okay! My job for the day is almost over. Now I'm going to talk about my org, Emzini weCode (@emziniwecode). If you are reading this final thread after the previous three, you are the best!
Now you would want to take your notebook and take this information for yourself, your kids and the young people in your community. Even if the child is in Grade 5, they will be eligible for our services soon.
I founded Emzini weCode to democratize access to Computer Science education. As I mentioned in the 1st 🧵, I spent 9 months in 2019 to focus on it in Bulawayo. I partnered with NUST American Space to host weekly workshops on Computer Science.
I noticed that even though I had so much knowledge to share, it was mostly hard as most of the participants did not have very strong foundations in Computer Science. I decided to formalize a college-level class modelled after the first class I took at UC Berkeley.
With advice from my professors and peers, I taught CS 7 to an initial enrollment of 234 students at the Bulawayo Public Library(extremely support staff). This class emphasized teaching the Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, concentrating mostly on the idea of ...
... the idea of abstraction, cultivating good thinking skills among students. Mastery of the python programming language was a useful side effect of taking the course. The way the class is taught make picking up a new language nothing but a few days' work.
My students fit multiple descriptions, I had High School, Gap year and University students. A vast number of my students were from Bulawayo Polytechnic College. I had working professionals, hustlers and a few High School teachers.
I taught the fast-paced course for 6 weeks. The material taught is challenging but we provide great help to help students learn in a fun and interactive way. At the end of the course, my students showed great improvement and a number of them became the next teaching assistants.
I'd love to spotlight a few of their achievements:
@andilejaden is a top coder who has been contributing a lot to open source software ever since. He's impressive and driven and currently works for @FirstSourceTec.
@andilejaden is a top coder who has been contributing a lot to open source software ever since. He's impressive and driven and currently works for @FirstSourceTec.
@KBhuza was a Lower 6 student when I introduced him to code. He has since launched My Digital Backpack( @MyDigitalBackp1), a one-stop place where students learn more from fellow student curated content. More High School Students used it in exam prep.
His work was recognized at Yale's University's YYAS program as the top 3 of all the students' project! He has participated in both national and international Hackathons, scooping medals in many of them.
@TshumaLavender, now a second-year student at MSU, together with her fellow MSU students @MarvellousChir2 & @chinyavadav won the 2020 Solution Challenge by Google Developer Student Clubs. This was a great achievement for our country.
Read about their project Capstone here : developers.google.com/community/dsc-…
More than 12 of the students from the current cohort are studying in the United States now at prestigious schools like Standford, Northwestern and Alabama State University, University of Rochester, NY just to name a few.
Through the mentorship programs that we have with support from our software engineering community in Silicon Valley, we are seeing a high number of acceptances for internships this year.
Okay, I know you now want to know how you can be a part of this too. We will be offering multiple classes and workshops throughout the year that will be Data Science focused. Reach out to @emziniwecode on all social media.
We will offer our CS 7 class to between 200 to 500 students in Sub Saharan Africa this May to July. We encourage people to apply. Let me answer your question: "Why the number 7?" Here's your answer
The number seven in CS 7 draws inspiration from various disciplines of philosophy. In religious thought, it represents completion. In the field of mathematics, it's our second happy number and first happy prime.
It is our belief that as students go through this course, they will find so much joy and happiness and the skills gained will add completeness to the various disciplines they are interested in partaking in.
We want to match our skills with global standards. To the parents and various institutions that deal will students, I'd love to share some advice I got from Strive Masiyiwa in a panel talk last year. On getting advice on how to make our communities computer literate, he shared...
... shared the following
"on how best Africa can prepare the next crop of innovators who can compete worldwide, Strive pointed to two things: we need to teach our African children rigorous Maths & we need to put a computer in the hands of every African teacher!" - @maroofafrica
"on how best Africa can prepare the next crop of innovators who can compete worldwide, Strive pointed to two things: we need to teach our African children rigorous Maths & we need to put a computer in the hands of every African teacher!" - @maroofafrica
Thank you everyone for engaging in today's discussion and I'm truly blessed and touch by the support coming in to help. Our May class will be entirely free. If you would love to sponsor data for a student in Zim, reach out too @erickhumz.
For institutions requiring our lessons, visit our website or DM @emziniwecode to get started.
Thank you very much. Ngiyabonga!
Eric Khumalo (erickhumalo.com)
Emzini weCode (emziniwecode.com)
thread.next = WE ARE DONE!!!!
thread.terminate()
Thank you very much. Ngiyabonga!
Eric Khumalo (erickhumalo.com)
Emzini weCode (emziniwecode.com)
thread.next = WE ARE DONE!!!!
thread.terminate()
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