Phylis Atieno: [00:00:00] Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining this session. My name is Phylis Atieno. So did you know that you get like two, about 200 times a day? Now, I’m here for a reason and it’s a very interesting story. So about three years ago, I had just finished my high school studies and I didn’t know what to do.

I was certain that I was passionate about technology, but there, there was no definite step into me pursuing my passion in technology. So I set out to reach out to my techn vision mentors. Techn vision is a global programs for girls under the age of 18 to grow their entrepreneurship and coding skills. I was lucky to connect with one of them.

And she in turn connected me to a program named girls, get geeking. This program helped me grow my web development skills. And in turn I grew in the tech ecosystem. So it’s through this program that I got to learn of [00:01:00] dev first, I signed up for the dev first that year. I believe it was the year 2019. And it.

A really amazing experience. I connected to devs in that region. And later did I know that I made an impact to one of the developers there. So he referred me to another coding program, which was a better one for me to grow my skills. And through that connection, I got to learn a scholarship to study.

Web development skills for free with all the things that I needed considering wifi and a laptop. So from this, I got to have a gist of how the developer ecosystem is in Kenya and in that region as well. I can say that this has contributed. Widely to my growth as a developer. So when I got into university, I already had a wide network of people.

I had connected to [00:02:00] amazing things I had created, and I had continued contributing to the community as well. So this leads me to my next.

So why community as a service, why is community considered a service? So community gives you a platform to grow and by growing, you get to connect with amazing developers, not only in your region, but from all over the world, this in time, cross your skills because you get to learn from a diverse set of developers.

You also get to create and learn amazing things through the sessions that you’re going to attend as a community member, you’re going to learn many new skills. And through this, you’re also going to create many amazing projects. Some developers attend events so that they can get new people to to create new projects with.

And this gives your [00:03:00] platform to be part of that. You also great to. long lasting connections to these developers. Some even get referrals. Like I said, I got a referral that landed me a life changing experience through being part of a tech community.

So how about service to the community access a service to you, but how can you be of service to communities? So you can be of service to communities by volunteering to be a speaker, volunteering, to organize an event and also volunteering to mentor tech. How does this benefit you as a person, you get to strengthen your resume, which is a plus you also get to be acknowledged and recognized in the wider developer community.

You also get learning opportunities, amazing learning opportunities and connections to other developers.[00:04:00]

So you may be wondering how do I start? My one advice to you is join the nearest community to next to you. And what’s better way to start than joining front and foxes community. So that’s the only advice I can live you with. Join the nearest community and get to benefit from the amazing resources that the community has to offer to.

Thank you so much for listening to my pretty short com presentation. And I hope to see you in the next event held by the community. Thank you.