Andrea Ozuem: Grand finale winner of the TGIF show with Team Apt

My name is Andrea Ozuem. I am currently studying computer science and mathematics at the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

When I was much younger I was unsure about what career I wanted to pursue.  During the lockdown, I was inspired by my cousin who introduced me to the tech space. I started learning python and really enjoyed it. I put Python on hold for a while and learned CSS and JavaScript. I wanted to discover what area in tech to focus on. I knew that I loved programming but was unsure if I wanted to go into frontend or backend software development. 

I found out about I4G on social media. I applied for a course I4GXZuri scholarship in 2022 and got in. It was educational for me but I couldn’t cope with it because of the other courses I was taking. However, I kept following the social media pages. The content on I4G’s Instagram and Twitter has been really relatable and insightful. I remember a post on productivity that I applied to my study of software development. 

I watched the recordings from  I4G live with team apt and I was really inspired by Leslie’s grit and passion for what he was doing. I loved that he was not put down by setbacks but kept pushing.  I learned the importance of networking from most of the sessions. I also subscribed to receiving the I4G newsletters. 

During the lockdown, my dad got a laptop which I used to learn how to code with python. It was slow but manageable. While going to university my brother was doing his IT so they gave me another system that had some faults. It was taken for repairs but the person who fixed it probably made it worse. Sometimes it would freeze or start malfunctioning and I’ll need to restart the system. ALX training was intensive and we had a lot of deadlines I was trying to meet up with so it was really frustrating and I was actually depressed and sad. 

One day I received an email from the newsletter about the TGIF Game show with I4G and TeamApt. I saw that the grand finale winner would win a macbook. I was hopeful. The game show started the same Friday that I received the mail and was going to go on every Friday for 4 weeks. I didn’t join the first 2 sessions. When I tried to participate in the 3rd  live session, my network was very poor and I couldn’t join. I tried again on the day of the final game show and though my network was bad I was really lucky to get my call through to the host. I answered most of the questions on the game show and was announced as the winner of the macbook. I was so excited! 

My experience using the new MacBook has been really great. The moment I started using the MacBook the experience with programming became more enjoyable. I can now multitask, work longer hours and run software that couldn’t have been done with the previous laptop. 

I look forward to being a certified software developer, put my skills to use and start earning as a developer before graduating. I4G has been a major contributor to my goals and I’m more inspired than ever to keep pushing.