“I'M CODING,” said her sibling, something that puzzled her. She always thought that coding only happened in the movies.
Maria Tuhirirwe started her “serious” coding career in April 2021 with the EDU classes after failing to get a balance between normal school studies in Senior three (S3) and coding, way back in 2018.
Her zeal for becoming an inventor compared to Law and Medicine professions that her friends always dreamed of drew her interest in the direction of coding.
The cartoons watched by Maria created a space in her for inventing, given her love for computers. Apart from telling people that she wanted to be an inventor, Maria would tell stories of what it meant for her to become an Electric Engineer since it was the closest description of a career she envisioned.
“Somewhere in 2017, I noticed that one of my brothers devoted a lot of time to his computer.” This drew Maria’s inquisitiveness to asking him what he was always doing with his head nested in his computer most of the time.
The 19-year-old who is one of our intern-facilitators at Outbox, teaching teenagers how to code, became interested in coding when she noticed that both of her siblings were inventing.
It amazed Maria how her siblings are able to create something from nowhere, like an inventor. It is at this point that it hit her that her brothers were living her dream. An excited Maria saw her journey of inventing start at that very moment.
In giving a kick to her coding journey, the EDU classes have made it easier for Maria by giving her direction on how to go about her dream.
She also denotes that the classes whose curriculum and guidance made it smoother for her, attending the EDU classes made it easier than self-teaching.
Maria’s notes on why young people should learn how to code
“The future is going to have a lot of new weird technology and knowing how it will be able to function is interesting. I hear some people say coding is hard but the truth is very many things are hard. Nothing is simple, it just depends on how determined and persistent you are.
"I also found hard challenges in my journey but I always had this quote I told myself, “I’m better than I was yesterday and I will be way better than myself Tomorrow.” Prayer also kept her moving.
According to Maria, when you learn how to code, you can be self-employed. Aside from that, there is always employment for coders.
In the future, Maria sees herself fulfilling her childhood dream of creating more inventions that will be useful to the world.
Compiled by Tracy Gwambe
