Folashade Adebayo, Education Advising Superior, United States Embassy, Abuja to speak at Google CS4HS 2015 Workshop

Do you know what time it is? It's 1:16a.m. and I am still awake trying to wrap things up in preparation for the grande finale of our Google CS4HS 2015 Teacher Training workshop. I really believe that anything worth doing is worth doing well and with that I set some very hairy audacious goals during the organization of this workshop. It's turned out to be a success on every level you can think of and for that I am humbled. To bring things to a close today is an amazing woman from the US Embassy Abuja. I am honored to introduce her to you all.

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Folashade Adebayo (Education Advising Superior, United States Embassy, Abuja) Folashade Adebayo describes herself as an original “Naija” woman with her ability to understand and speak several Nigerian languages (she speaks Yoruba, Hausa, Pidgin English and has a basic understanding of Igbo). She holds a degree in Public Administration and a post graduate degree in Business Administration. Before joining the United States Embassy, Shade worked with the American International School Abuja. 

She has attended the United States Based Training Program (USBT) and Professional Advising Leadership (PAL) training, participated in Sub-Saharan Africa advisors conferences, presented and co-chaired sessions at several NAFSA and other international educational conferences. It is Shade’s role of advising indigent and talented students in the United States Achievers Program (USAP) that gives her the most satisfaction. By advising USAP students and sharing their success stories, Shade spreads a message of hope for a brighter future to talented young Nigerians who never believed they could study in the United States on scholarship. 

Shade says “being an advisor is the best job at the Embassy because we are in the business of transforming lives”. She will be speaking as well as facilitating a panel discussion at our closing ceremony tomorrow.

Educate A Child! Better A Nation!

Today we celebrate children's day all over this great country Nigeria and so I write this article in honor of every Nigerian child, residing somewhere on this planet called Earth. The Bible let's us know that children are a blessing from the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. This therefore tells us that children should not be taken for granted because God himself cares so dearly for them.

Sadly enough what we see happening in our world today is appalling. Pedophiles carrying out despicable acts with little children, terrorists kidnapping, killing, and sexually abusing young girls, drug lords recruiting young boys as hit men and girls as sex slaves and the list goes on. Even the teens themselves are not left out. Many are engaging in premarital sex and getting pregnant. It's not uncommon to see two kids having a kid these days! How do they take care of the poor child? And so we are left with broken adults who have no clue as to why God created them in the first place. This has led to a marked increase in the number of abortions, suicide cases, drug abuse, and violence just to name a few. Meanwhile, this was never the plan of God to begin with.

In every child is a wonderful adult. The way you train up a child will determine if they grow up to become that great person who impacts their world for good and leaves their footprints in the sands of time or become a nuisance to society and probably die like a dog in the street. We as guardians, parents, mentors, teachers, etc. must take this to heart and do the right thing. Someone once said that, "It's possible for anyone to hit a home run, but an education gives you more swings and more outs in the game." And the Legendary Nelson Mandela crowned it all when he said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” I strongly believe in the power of Education to transform a child, youth and adult from a peasant into a President, from a mud house to the penthouse, and from no job to a corner office. This education has to be both formal (at school) and informal (at home) so that the child can grow up to be a well balanced individual. An intelligent child who lacks good morals is no different from a thug and like they say charity truly begins at home. Children must be taught respect people at home and then go to school to exercise their minds in their to be careers.

Shockingly according to UNICEF literacy figures in Nigeria,

• 40% of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for girls.
• Despite a significant increase in net enrollment rates in recent years, it is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school, many do not complete the primary cycle.
• According to current data, 30% of pupils drop out of primary school and only 54% transit to Junior Secondary Schools. Reasons for this low completion rate include child labor, economic hardship and early marriage for girls.
• More than 200,000 new teachers are needed in Nigeria to ensure that there is one primary level teacher for no more than 40 learners.
• Nigeria alone is home to an estimated 10.5 million out-of-school children.

It is for these reasons that the Edu Teens Science Development Foundation which advocates for STEM and CS training for junior and secondary school students came up with a program called Code2Schools. Through our Code2Schools program we are bringing the power of problem solving and critical thinking to junior and senior secondary school students between the ages of 9 to 18. We do so through an innovative approach to education that merges core technical skills in STEM and CS with entrepreneurial knowledge which will eventually transform these young minds from job seekers to job creators by the time they get to University.

So far we have been able to partner with Google on the CS First program where we teach scratch programming to junior and senior secondary school students using the Google CS First curriculum. It's been amazing and the children are loving it. In most of the classes I have personally taught, I found out that the girls performed far better than the boys and this made me smile considering that these fields are predominantly male dominated.

This Summer we will be organizing a Code Camp for 70 kids in order to teach them how to write their own games instead of merely playing one. We will be teaching Scratch programming, Mobile App development using MIT App inventor and some aspects of responsive web development. The kids will work collaboratively in teams and be tasked to work on real world projects which will build their technical skills. We believe in these kids and no one can tell if the next Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates or Steve Jobs might just be amongst them.

We want you to join us in this movement as we take computer programming (code) from school to school. Follow our campaign on Indiegogo here. Please donate today and help make a child's dream come true. And to all our Nigerian children I say, Happy Children's day!

Arreytambe Tabot is the Founder and CEO of the Edu Teens Science Development Foundation whose overall mission is to promote Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM) and Computer Science (CS) through innovative ways that capture learner’s attention, emphasizes relevance, increases motivation and hence participation in these fields. He most recently released his first classic, "Planting The Seeds of Change: Preparing tomorrow's harvest with today's seed." He is a geek gone commercial, a public speaker and writer par excellence.

FROM GOOGLE STUDENT AMBASSADOR TO GOOGLE CS4HS AWARD WINNER!

Rewind! It's June 2013 and I get that joyous email I had been patiently waiting for informing me that I had been selected to serve as a Google Student Ambassador for my University, The African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria. I get my things ready, air ticket's been paid for so I head off to the Airport to board my flight to Kenya for the Google Summit. I returned back to Nigeria after a mind-blowing Summit and my work begins. The experiences from that venture had been highlighted in an earlier post so just Click here to read about it

Fast forward, it's now April 2015, two years later and a lot has happened within this period. I put on some weight (90kg to 96.4kg which is a lot of course), had my friends change my nickname from Slim-T to Fat-T (And now I am working on being somewhere in the middle by hitting the gym more regularly and eating healthy) and I also added a new title "Former" to my previous title "Lead Google Student Ambassador, AUST, Abuja." Wow! What an accomplishment right? Wrong! 

It's been an exciting two year period since my last official assignment as a Google Student Ambassador. Upon finishing my tenure as an Ambassador in 2014, I was promoted within my Office at the Nigerian Turkish Nile University, Abuja, Nigeria where I was serving as an Assistant Lecturer in the Computer Science Department to now co-leading as the Deputy Head of Department (with a Lecturer II status).

Sometime in August 2014, I happened to be returning back to Nigeria from Cameroon through Ethiopia with Ethiopian Airlines (a journey of about 4hrs 30mins from Ethiopia to Nigeria). I was trying calm my nerves after battling for a long time with the immigration authorities at the Douala International Airport in Cameroon. My mind was not ready to think about any other thing except how to get back at the folks who tried ripping me off in my own country. But as I lay back in my seat trying to get some rest in my mind all of a sudden an avalanche of ideas came gushing in from every direction. I took out my notebook and began writing them down. I began to see with absolute clarity something I had pondered on for a long time and later abandoned-How to build enthusiasm in High School teachers so that their students could get a richer experience in the classroom. Upon landing in Abuja, I went home developed these ideas and the next thing was "How do I get the funding for it?" Then the CS4HS popped into my mind. 

I waited for the application period to open up and submitted my application for the Google CS4HS 2015 grant. It was with immense joy when I received the kind of email I received two years ago, this time informing me that my application was successful and that I had been awarded the Google CS4HS grant to carry out my project. The application process this year was very competitive as the email read and we happened to be one of the few Institutions that received the funding globally. Am I excited about this? Of course I am! And you can see the smile on my face. 

Now it's time to go to work to ensure that through this grant local Computer Science teachers in Secondary Schools and Universities will be empowered to teach  CS in a way that's fun, engaging and motivating to students. The trained teachers will then be assisted in organizing a Train-The-Students (TTS) event on their various campuses. This will encourage the students to pursue future careers in CS and STEM related fields as well as motivate them to become life-long learners. This is how I became the first individual to transition from being a former Google Student Ambassador to now a Google CS4HS 2015 Award Winner!

Arreytambe Tabot is currently a final year Ph.D. Candidate (Computer Science) at the African University of Science and Technology (Abuja, Nigeria), and the Deputy Head of the Computer Science Department at the Nigerian Turkish Nile University, Abuja, Nigeria. He also heads the overall operations of OpenKollabo Group as its Founder and CEO. You can follow us here on LinkedIn by visiting our Company Page. He has held senior level management positions at various start-ups and Non-Profit Organizations in the past. He is a geek gone commercial, a public speaker and writer par excellence.

FIVE LESSONS I LEARNT FROM MEGAMIND

Isn't it funny that I would be writing about a blue, bald-headed guy from an animated movie? But that's exactly what I would be doing in this post. Megamind voiced over by Will Ferrell happens to be one of those animated superhero action comedy films I have watched for more than six to seven times. The story is about a guy who decides to become a villain and not just any kind of villain but the "baddest" of them all in the place where he lived called Metro City. He possesses unique gifts and abilities but was always treated as an outcast by his peers at school. He grew up in a prison where he was taught that evil was good and good was evil. He tried so hard to please his teachers and friends but every effort was met with rejection which made him feel worse about himself. On the other hand his arch rival, a handsome hunk called Metro Man was treated to much fanfare while Megamind was sent to quiet corner. But the movie ends with Megamind, the much hated villain dedicating a museum that had been built to his honor for defeating a ruthless villain he mistakenly created called Titan. Of course, he also got the girl Roxanne Ritchie too. After all don't they say the good guy gets it all?

Anyway what was Megamind's beginning like and what are the five lessons I learnt from his story? Megamind, a super intelligent extraterrestrial mastermind was born on a dying planet and sent off to earth in a capsule accompanied by his minion when he was barely a few months old. His father and mother remained behind and died with the other inhabitants of their planet during the explosion. But before he was sent off, he heard his father telling him what he was destined for. Unfortunately, all he could remember were the very first lines, "you were destined for...." because his little capsule's door closed up, setting his capsule off at lightning speed on a long journey to earth. It also happened that as he set off to discover his glorious destiny, a little handsome looking baby with great hair did the same too from another planet and they were all headed for the same destination, Earth. This little baby's name was Metro Man and it was on that day that their long lasting rivalry was born.

The 5 key lessons I learned from this...

1. When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is imminent.

I have heard this phrase a countless number of times yet many do not truly understand how potent this statement is to set them free to pursue their calling. Megamind was destined for good not evil. But because he didn't get what his father told him, he spent his teenage years trying to gain acceptance amongst his peers and everyone else to no avail. He tried many times to be good but kept on getting bad results. Every attempt at doing something was met with contempt and at the end of the day because he didn't truly know what his purpose was he began to feel dejected and the next thing he resorted to was full scale evil.

There are many people today who are living the kind of phony lifestyles they have adopted because they felt as if being the guy or girl who didn't conform wasn't the "in thing" anymore. Every guy/girl is losing their virginity so why keep mine. Everybody is shagging around so who cares if I do it too. Hollywood marriages don't last therefore marriage must be old-fashioned. A couple of flings around is good for me. And I can go on and on. Like Megamind we came from a Kingdom above with clear instructions on how to live life down here on planet earth. But we have forgotten all that because we don't spend time with our Bibles which is our manual for living and instead we look to Celebrities, Billionaires, Athletes, TV commercials, Soap Opera's for how to live the abundant life in Christ. Christian Rapper Da Truth says it's like "Looking to Bruce Banner (Hulk) for anger management classes." Megamind misused his gifts and abilities because he didn't know what his purpose was.

2. Don't compete with anybody

Megamind spent his early years trying to out do his rival Metro Man and this was the major reason why he gave up doing good in favor of evil because he really couldn't measure up even though he too was extremely talented. Some people are naturally gifted at certain things. I mean if I try to compete with a Lionel Messi on the soccer pitch today, I will always feel inadequate and untalented meanwhile that isn't the case. God has blessed each and everyone of us with unique gifts and abilities and things that only we alone can do excellently well. Our job here on earth is to find out what those things are and do them to best of our ability. In that way we get to enjoy each others gift rather than trying to compete or out do one another. I love Lionel Messi and I enjoy watching him play soccer. I equally know that there are things I am naturally good at in other areas and everyday I work at becoming excellent at what I do. Never compare yourself with anybody rather work at being the best you year in year out.

3. Take responsibility for your life

Don't play the blame game. It doesn't help in anyway and neither should you adopt a victim mentality. You will be on the same spot till God knows when. I know someone who back in my University days told me the story of her life and lamented why so and so happened to her. I met her 4 years later and I was surprised that she sat me down and told me the same story I mean without missing a beat that she had told me 4 years earlier. What I then figured out was that she had told this story so many times it had become a rhyme to her. Megamind was disappointed about the fact that life had dealt him some very hard blows. Metro Man his arch rival was adopted by a rich family while he was adopted by prisoners. Metro Man went to school with the rich kids while he was brought in every day to school from prison. Metro man was given awards while he was sent to quiet corner. Was this his lot in life? Was he meant to be an underdog? There are certain things you can't change in life like where you were born or the family you were born into and a host of others. But you can determine to a very large extent how your life pans out because tomorrow is always better than yesterday for those who will take care of their today. Don't use excuses to stay in a rut. Get out of that rut and make something meaningful out of your life. Megamind finally got this message and in the end got the girl he loved and a stature of honor to his name.

4. Beware of your closest associates.

One thing you need to be careful about is who you associate with. There are people who have lost lucrative jobs and deals because the people they hung around with gave off a strong negative vibe. Some have even been jailed because their friends committed a crime and they were innocently arrested too since they hung out together a lot. If you know where you are going in life and what you hope to accomplish then begin to choose carefully the people you hang out with. Preferably your closest associates should be people who share the same values with you and who motivate you. Megamind's closest associate was his minion who felt that he was destined to be an evil genius and praised him for being so. The moment he began to realize that Megamind was becoming soft, he rebuked him sharply and told him that evil was all he was good at. He eventually fell out with Megamind and left him because he was becoming good. Doesn't that sound like you? Bad friends never want to see you climb out of the pit. They will either pull you down with them or insult you from afar. Stay away from people who don't add value to your life.

5. Be Real

One of the reasons why Megamind almost lost the love of his life Roxanne Ritchie was because he deceived her into thinking that he was Metro Man's Museum Curator who went by the name of Bernard. He didn't see himself as good enough as he was to attract the beautiful Roxanne. There are many people today who spend their entire lives living like other people. They spend an awful amount of money on designer stuff, hair, makeup and all what not trying to fit into an acceptable social mold or what the media has defined to be the epitome of true success. Just be yourself and people would accept you the way you are. I once heard a man say, "What you compromise to keep, you will eventually lose." And the truth is every lie always need another lie to cover it up. That is why there are no successful liars for one day the hidden truth would eventually be revealed. Let people know who you are and if they accept you that way then good if not they can bounce right along. God's arms are wide open to receive you. When Megamind was discovered, he finally came out with the truth about himself and surprisingly enough the lady loved the real him more than the fake identity he had been carrying along for a while. Some people are paying the price today for the lies they told yesterday or the personalities they adopted just so they could belong to a certain clique or keep up with the joneses. It's not worth it. In the words of John Mason, author of An Enemy Called Average, "You were born an original don't die a copy. "

WINNING BIG- THE LINEAR VS THE NON-LINEAR CAREER PATHS

A couple of years back I was speaking to a small group of people and my opening question to them was, “What is your personal definition of success?” The answers I got were amazing. Here are some of them in no particular order;

•  Making a lot of money

•   Running a Fortune 500 company

•  Having enough to help me take good care of myself and family

•  Being able to travel the world in my own private jet, owning an expensive house, cars and a yacht

And much more. Bottom-line is success will always mean different things to different people because we all have different worldviews. Personal success is very subjective as it depends on the inherent values imbued in every individual. For some they believe a good looking bank account will settle it for them. For some people they find their success in the success of others while for another lot it's in the shiny things. This varies from individual to individual. In my opinion I see success as wrapped up in three things. You can call them the 3 P's. People, Planet, Profits. Let's break it down;

People- Everyone I can influence for the Kingdom using the gifts and graces I have been endowed with by our Heavenly Father. I am a people person. My desire is to see people move from point A to point B because of the value I added to their lives. It gives me joy to see someone who was weak in an area which happened to be one of my strengths grow to become a better person as a result of my positive influence upon their lives. There is nothing more fulfilling than a life of service. And the reason why I put people first is because if you genuinely make it your aim to add value to people, profits will undoubtedly come pouring in like an avalanche. No one who serves goes empty handed unless they never did it out of a pure heart. The mistake many people make is that they try to do things for people with the mindset that those same people will in turn return a good favor. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! It doesn't work like this. Most times the people who end up giving back to you are never the people you helped. If you run a business my advice to you is that you put people first and profits will come. That's why customer service is so important. If you suck at service delivery (leading to disgruntled customers) you will begin to lose market share and hence profit share to your competitors. On the other hand one satisfied customer might just be your ticket to your next top notch job. So put people first!

Planet- Being able to make a positive impact on my community during my lifetime and beyond it. Many companies today are making huge profits at the expense of their communities. We have seen places that have been ravaged by deforestation. We have seen communities that have been torn apart due to oil exploration. We have seen people living in very rich communities yet staying very poor because of the profit-focused motives of an elite few. The younger generation must be educated. Schools therefore have to be built to that effect. Orphanages for orphans, Homes for the homeless, and much more.

Profits- Having money, I mean enough money or better still more than enough money to take care of myself, family and those around me in need. Money is a medium of exchange and a very important agent in today's world. Having delivered excellent service and added value to people's lives, provided and taken good care of one's community, making some good profits then would not be a bad idea. You need money to build roads, fight malaria and cancer, feed the hungry, take care of widows, in fact you need money for everything. However, money must be gotten the right way. Not by defrauding people or every other illicit scheme but through providing valuable service in exchange for it. Everybody wants to live a good life as well as leave an inheritance for their children's children (generational thinkers) but we must get it the right way. There is nothing absolutely wrong with making good money.

Now the next question that crops up is, "how do we achieve success?" Good question. In my opinion there are two ways to do this. I describe them as the Linear path and the Non-linear path. Let's look at the linear path for a moment

       The Linear Career Path
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Undergraduate degree + Law school + bar exam = Life of a Lawyer

I think we are all aware of this path and can by ourselves also craft out linear equations for other fields. It's the conventional path. It is the path our parents told us to follow if we ever wanted to make anything out of our lives. "Stay in school, get good grades and become a Medical Doctor, Lawyer, Banker, Accountant, Engineer and what have you." For those who love playing it safe, it is the best path to take. Is it a rewarding path? Yes, it is. There are people who have made a fortune by following the linear career path. If you know your onions then you can command very fat paychecks. However, I do advise against the payday mentality where people end up living from paycheck to paycheck without any significant investments towards their future. It won't hurt to have multiple streams of income. In fact that's the right thing to do! I have seen people leave from paid employment after putting in decades and decades of service only to end up as broke as the word itself. Depending on a salary is not the best way to live out one's life because you will always be at the mercy of your employers. However, with some financial wisdom, you can make the most of the paid employment system and still retire to a very comfortable life.

  The Non-Linear Career Path

Can't be captured in a linear equation

 Our second path which I call "The road less travelled" because it is no surefire way to success is the non-linear career path. It starts off with a dream, a passion, call it whatever you want to call it but that thing that tells you, "There's gotta be more to life", Yes to make a dent in history, to disrupt an entire industry, to blaze new trails, to make a difference in life. As you can see they too are very much educated but that happens not necessarily within the four walls of classroom for the word Education comes from the latin root word, "ēdūcō" which means to grow from within and has nothing to do with BSc's, GPAs, MSc's, PhDs or MBA's. However, getting a good degree especially in this part of the world won't hurt either. For such people, passion fans the flames of innovation while creativity ignites that passion. If the end could be determined from the beginning, many more would sure follow this route because it's exit has written on it "Financial independence". Meaning you don't have to suck up, lick up or tolerate anyone's naughtiness. It also truly affords one the time to focus on the things that truly matter to you while having a good time with the people that matter most-Family. Unfortunately, it is a path also overlaid with so many sorrows, disappointments, failures and risks. It is not for the weak in heart. It is not for the one who's focus is on the immediate. But in the end you are always the better for it. These are the people who control the financial and money markets. These are the people who create jobs and grow economies. These are the people who make things happen rather than watch things happen to them. Whichever of the two paths you choose is entirely up to you.  

Keys to becoming the best YOU.

There is no better time to be alive than today. I always say that today well lived prepares you for a better tomorrow. That is why we have to maximize the time we have in our hands right now. No sitting on the couch all day watching TV. Go to work on becoming the best YOU that you can be. Because it is when you are at your best that you begin to command value and money becomes the medium of exchange for your services. Unfortunately, many people don't get this especially today's youths. We are running from pillar to post in search of the next "How to make 1500 dollars a day from home" and all what not. We need to wise up. How do we do that. Five keys I must share with you,

• Start Right where you are today - Kill the procrastination cycle by starting today. You will never be able to figure everything out before beginning for no one can know what tomorrow holds but you can start today and then take calculated risks as you move along.

• Be your future self- Become today the person you will want to be tomorrow. See yourself as that top notch consultant, CEO or whatever and carry yourself that way. Imagination and hard work have a way of turning vivid pictures in our minds into tangible success.

• Become an Expert in your chosen field- People don't pay for mediocrity, they pay for expertise. So you want to become an authority figure in your field. Aim to be in top 5% in whatever field you find yourself in. Read, Read and Read! 

• Build your support system- Have a very robust network of A-list people who challenge you to grow and become all that you want to be. Stop spending time with people who only sap your creative energy rather run away as fast as you can from them. You are usually two to three people away from anything you want to get. Make sure your two to three friends can actually get you to whomever and whatever you are looking for. 

• Trust time- I have come to realize that time is a friend and not an enemy. Young people always seem to be rushing through life. They want to get a PhD by 19,  make a million dollars by 20, get married to a super model by 21, pay cash down for that Lamborghini by 22 and the list goes on. And what do we see happening around us today? Young people are dying before their time due to their involvement in so many illicit activities. Time is a friend. God would have made the gestation period of a woman to be 1 day if He wanted to but He made it 9 months for a reason. There is no overnight success. Somethings just can't be fast-tracked. I think "Success" is one of them unless you want to play now and pay later.

          My final thoughts

1. It is far more better to try and fail than to fail at not trying
2. Don't wait for the right idea because even the right idea changes once it has been set in motion. 
3. Ideas are only as good as their time of conception