Google Africa Scholarship (ALC 3.0). How the experience has helped.
I was one of thousands of Africans that signed up for the Google Africa Scholarship (AKA ALC 3.0). The scholarship is 100% online and scholars learn online using the Udacity platform. There was also some extra support for learners via Andela’s ALC community. The community run a slack channel where all learners can interact with others and mentors.
The ALC community also host offline meetups for learners in various cities across Africa. In addition to being a scholar for ALC 3.0, I also volunteered to help organise local meetups for beginners in Android and Web track in my city.
A little about me and Tech life
Here is more about me and why I opted in to the scholarship and the track I picked (Android Development). I am a computer science graduate and I have been coding for a weirdly long time. I have been running a small software development business that a friend and I started in 2012 (we call it Buildbrothers Nigeria). Our goal was to run a company that build apps that solved local problems and hopefully run a business by generating revenue from any of our products that succeeds. This led me to learning PHP and eventually android development. In 2015 we published our first android app to the Google Play store.
Besides coding, I consistently volunteer to help newbies get started in software development. I currently organise the local GDG in my city (GDG Makurdi) and I have been helping with ALC meetups in my city since ALC 2.0.
My ALC 3.0 experience
The scholarship had two phases; One had thousands of learners and ran from May — July 2018. During this stage the main study material for learners on the android development track was: https://www.udacity.com/course/new-android-fundamentals--ud851 (This course is free and you can check it out). The course really helped.
At the end of the first phase there was a final project which will help only 500 scholars qualify for phase 2 (A free Udacity Nanodegree course). Mails were sent out to scholars with the requirements for an app we will have to build to qualify for the next phase. I have a very busy schedule working as a freelance developer and a developer community manager. However, I somehow managed to make out time to complete the project. And this came in after some weeks.
I was super excited! Especially because out of thousands of learners, I made it to the final 500 :D . This made me value the opportunity more and the Nanodegree also cost around 1000 USD. It felt like Google Africa was gifiting me that amount and I can't afford to waste it.
Udacity Android Development Nanodegree (ALC 3 phase 2)
Unlike the course in the first phase, the nanodegree started with a project where I will have to code (Sandwich app). It took me some time to understand the starter code for this project and get started with trying to complete the task. On the sandwich app project I learnt a few new things about a better way to format my code. The Nanodegree program is highly project based. Meaning you will be watching less video and coding more to complete projects within specific deadlines.
Project reviews were a part of Nanodegree. Udacity will have one of their reviewers take a look at your project and ask you to redo some part or determine whether you passed the project. The reviewers usually attach useful tips and links to resources too, this helped me to learn about best practises and discover new tools and libraries for development.
I had built and published an app with over 1000 installs on Play store before starting the Google Challenge Scholarship. My goal before registering for the scholarship is to become a world class mobile developer and software engineer. So far, I believe the Nanodegree program has helped me come closer to my goal.
What I have learnt so far and how it is helping in my career
Currently I work as a freelance developer and also as a developer in my small company (Buildbrothers Nigeria). Thanks to the Google Africa Scholarship I feel more confident as a developer. I have become more familiar with software development tools like Git and GitHub, Firebase, Unit testing and others. Building new apps feel faster and I believe I am writing cleaner codes than I did 2 years ago. I look forward to learning more on a job with new challenges and via other programs like the Google Africa Scholarship.
I will like to say a big thank you to Google Africa, Udacity and Andela for the opportunity. I look forward to doing greater things and telling more happy stories!
Below are links to github repos for some of my scholarship projects :
And that’s a summary of my ALC story so far. Thank you for reading.