Windows Insider article published on Jun 11, 2020
Vuyo Mhlotshane leaned over a chess board across from her four-year-old son and asked him a question, “How many points is a queen?”
“Five,” he answered, without missing a beat.
What might otherwise seem like an ordinary exchange between mother and son offers a glimpse into Vuyo’s innate ability to teach.
Vuyo is a developer who is channeling her beliefs about diversity in technology to train young people, including her son, in coding.
“We have 11 official languages in South Africa. Coding will be the 12th.”
She grew up in Vanderbijlpark, a city in northeast South Africa, which she remembers as a calm and quiet small town. Inspired by her mother’s work ethic as a small business owner, Vuyo discovered her own ambition at a young age. She’d always known she’d look for opportunities outside of their small town. “If you stay, your mindset is also going to be small,” Vuyo said. “You’re not going to grow, especially in the tech space.”
Vuyo made the decision to act on her ambition and moved to Johannesburg to study coding at WeThinkCode_, a tuition-free, peer-to-peer institute that teaches students in Africa programming. It was a difficult transition as she struggled to adapt to the fast-paced nature of Johannesburg. “It was one of the toughest decisions I’ve ever made, but I had my son in mind constantly,” she said.
From there, she began a month-long intensive session to learn a programming language. She followed that with months of additional training. Though she’d been intimidated at first, Vuyo’s conscious choice to start tackling the things she was most afraid of helped her thrive.
Vuyo is now a graduate of WeThinkCode_ and has remained very involved in the institute by offering students the opportunity to work on her ongoing efforts. “Continuous integration/continuous delivery is what my community and I constantly try to do. Using new technological advances to try to make education not only more accessible, but engaging too. We have also found that the internet brings people close together, and there is so much information out there for us to consume. Microsoft Learn has been our go-to guide, and the Insider community.”
One such project uses Microsoft technologies to build a system that makes learning and coding enjoyable for kids of all ages. “I think with black girls, especially, they don’t get the opportunity to be exposed to the tech space,” she said.
She sees diversity as an essential part of coding and believes it’s vitally important to get women and girls in Africa involved, so they can help shape the digital landscape. “We have braids, we have Afros, we have all of these other things,” she said. “When it comes to doing machine learning and facial recognition properly, who puts that data set in there? We need to be a part of that movement.”
Vuyo also sees a tremendous value in getting her son involved with coding at an early age and finds inspiration in Africa’s younger generations. “Kids are very creative, they come up with brilliant solutions,” she said. “Just being in an environment where you can do so much with technology, why not start young? Because once you start younger, it’s so much easier when you’re older.”
The Windows Insider Program has been an important part of supporting Vuyo’s community in these missions. “They not only offer their services to help make our platform better, but share links, resources, and their time with us to help us do more and become better. The Windows Insider Program helps shape my community surpassing my wildest dreams.”
She also credits the program with giving her a global community of help and resources. “I’m a Windows Insider because it gives me a sense of belonging in the tech industry, while I get to be a part of a community that not only cares and wants to make a difference in peoples’ lives, but is super helpful and big on sharing.”
Today, Vuyo is using Microsoft Azure to create and host applications in the cloud and hopes to have a career in cloud engineering and UI/UX. She wants to continue training young people and encourages them to overcome the same fears she faced. “Don’t be scared of the computer. Don’t be scared of programming,” she said. “There’s a lot of languages that’ll understand how you think.”
If you’re interested in starting your own community, Vuyo’s advice is to take the risk. “You are the creator of your universe, and if you would like to see change, it starts with you,” she said. “Taking this first step can impact your family, friends, colleagues, and getting everyone involved in living a meaningful life.”
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