My SCA journey

"A journey of a thousand miles starts from a single step." One thing my SCA journey made me realize is, in life, all we need to do is make one move at a time; each step is ultimately leading us to a better result. Being an insecure beginner struggling with CSS, I turned a blind eye to every opportunity I came across because I thought I wasn't qualified enough. But with some encouragement from my friends, I decided to apply for something I thought was way out of my league - the SCA Unilag community leadership role. I signed up and forgot about it. Around the time lockdown started, I got an email that requested an interview for the position. One of the things that triggered anxiety in me was the number of people that applied for that same role.

I went for the interview but had no expectations whatsoever. Long story short, I got an email one Tuesday that I had been selected. I never knew I could get something I applied for since most of the opportunities I came across I never bothered using. I was scared, I wasn't sure how to go about it, but I was filled with great joy at the same time.

The journey

I had an onboarding call with the community organizers and resumed my duties on the 1st of June, 2020. I was scared. I had never been a core team member or done anything related to community leadership before; the role was a new ball game for me.

I first needed to build a core team to run the community; it was the first year of its functioning as an existing group on my campus. I was nervous. I created a form, sent it out then realized hours later that I didn't include any means of contact (email or phone number). I couldn't reach the people that filled it. So funny, right!! Luckily, I made many friends virtually and had a good rapport with them. I created a group chat and added my close friends who indicated an interest in being part of my team. We started building the community. We created a social media account (Twitter) for publicity and sent registration forms to different faculties in school to build up our membership. We decided to use WhatsApp as a primary means of communication with our members. The first two to three weeks were to build up the group and have new members. We kept records of our members and started.

First three months

This period was a weaning period for our baby community. While we had the support from the mother body of the community, they influenced us as little as possible. My team and I had to plan how to engage the community members, of which a good number were newbies. We had an idea. We sent a survey to the new community members asking them for the fields they'd want us to bring speakers on, speakers who'd encourage them in their various pursuits. The results from the survey resulted in our first event. It was an enlightening session, and we got positive feedback. We later came up with a program, "The accountability partner program," whereby girls in the same stack are paired together and follow up on each other's learning. We taught them how to look out for their friends and assist in ways they could. They also had mentors who monitored their learning. We also ensured a good number of the ladies shared their experiences by writing an article on what they learned and had a feel of technical writing. We also partnered with an existing on-campus, google developers student club and engineering expo to create awareness for our community.

Next three months

Amongst other activities, SCA UNILAG had webinars every month. We saw that most community members' progress was tremendous, so we decided to make it a recurring event. The more people joined, the more they worked on projects, the more beautiful and lively the community became. Apart from monthly webinars, there were engaging sessions where the community members spoke their minds and opened up about their struggles and trends in technology. The session occurred every fortnight Friday. The ladies were able to form bonds with themselves and also became familiar with one another. There were giveaways as part of the plan to encourage more ladies to be active. Around that time, Hacktoberfest was approaching, so one of our events was based on contributing to open source. It was a basic introduction to the use of git and Github.

Last two months

Our monthly webinars continued, and we decided to make the host open to community members. Usually, the core team members rotated the role amongst themselves. We had the end of the year meet up virtually, where we had about 100 ladies in our community. We recorded so much progress and growth in the community; it was a great joy. We were one big family.

Before my handover, there was one more event - a deep dive into technical writing, the dos and don'ts, the content structure, mood, and tone to capture the audience.

Struggles

The community programs were all virtual, and along the line, we noticed engagements reduced for a while. The cost of data and the craving for physical presence were challenging. One of the things I didn't achieve was sending emails the right way. Most of the contents we sent were not as neat and professional as I would have loved.

Benefits

• It was an exciting ride. I made amazing friends and connections to help me grow.
• I learned how vital a tech family could be to your growth, even as friends.
• I felt like a mother who is so proud of her girls, and I wanted them to do better than I am.
• I learned how to make decisions with my team and be considerate people.
• The leadership role gave me a sense of awareness to grow and progress in my tech field.

Shoutout

There is a long list of people I want to give a shoutout to. So long that I'd not be able to do so in 10 pages, but they all know themselves, and I appreciate them. I was terrified to take up this role, but I became better at leading, learning, and growing because of them.

I am grateful to Ada and Judith for the opportunity to serve and grow. Also, my beautiful SCA UNILAG team members, Q devs, JS. Minna, Africoders, SCA UNILAG members.