SHE IS YET TO GRADUATE BUT SHE IS WORKING FOR LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES  

Meet Alice Wanjiku Njoroge – A Software Developer    

“I remember that day as if it was yesterday. I met a Computer Science graduate from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) who advised me to choose Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT). He explained to me how he had met quality graduates from DeKUT, the strong Christian Union and the student-lecturer interactions in the University. He said "Most universities half-bake graduates, in DeKUT you will be fully baked." I have always been fascinated by technology and wanted to make my dream come true and after that interaction, I didn’t think of a better place to make it come true.True to it, my friend was right.” – Alice Njoroge

The statement “the world is a global village” is more accurate to some than others; Alice falls in the first category. Two months to her graduation with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from our University (DeKUT), Alice has a record of software development having worked with both local and international companies. While at it, she is laying the foundation to start her own software company here in the country; she is working on a property management software for a Kenyan company called Leo-Realtors and looking to deploy it as a multi-tenant software with an expectation to sell it to a lot more companies.As if this is not enough, Alice has a full – time employer; a company called Griffin Solutions based in Atlanta Georgia which she is working for remotely.

Talk of diligence!

Asked how she got here, she narrated: “I first heard about programming when I joined campus in first year. For the first two years, I struggled a lot. I could not get it; nothing made sense at all. It would break me. I would feel this confusion in my head, in as much as my grades were good, I did not feel like I was actually learning the skill. Towards the end of second year,I approached one of my lecturers (Mr. Michael Kagiri). I explained my predicament and he immediately took it upon himself to guide me. He introduced me to a lot of software developers in the industry. He gave me Udemy courses on development and got me involved in a lot of projects. I have done a lot of volunteer work during my practice including CCVKenya; a crane conservation company based in Nyahururu. In my third year, I discovered the idea of working remotely. I would pair program a lot with one of my best friends, (a fellow student); pair programming is an agile programming technique in which two programmers work together in one workstation. I would say the best thing about being in DeKUT is the people I met. They were very influential.”

Alice has written a variety of softwares, some of which she has signed Non – Disclosure Agreements but others include: Teaching Software, Management Software and a Content Management Software. Among these, she says that what she considers her greatest achievement is the teaching software; a Digital Learning Object (DLO) software being used by Computer Science students here at the University to help them learn Relational Algebra and Relational Databases. This explains why she is inspired by the feeling of being a problem solver; “There is no better feeling than that of seeing the smiles I put on people's faces when I solve their problems” – she says. In the words of Mr. Michael Kagiri, her mentor and lecturer in the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, “the DLO software has simplified greatly relational algebra concepts to students and changed the students’ perception towards relational algebra which is the foundation of SQL(Structured Query Language).I highly recommend anyone learning the relational algebra to use the tool.”

 Alice also writes articles on a platform called medium every fortnight to help beginners learn in an easier way.

Alice is set to graduate this April and we wish her all the best as she continues to take on the world of software development and empower, inspire many to follow their dreams and do the best they can at it. We also continue to appreciate and build the spirit of fraternity here at DeKUT that helps us grow each other in order to, together, be a force to reckon with in changing the world.