Odegua O.

Odegua O.

2018 Anita Borg Systers Pass It On Award Winner
Project Title: CODE with GIRLS Lagos

Odegua is the Founder and President of the James Ogunbor Education Foundation (JOEF); a Lead Consultant at Pedagogic Consulting (an educational services organization that offers Information Technology training); and the current President of the Society of Women Engineers, Lagos Affiliate in Nigeria. She is a philanthropist and leader who has vast knowledge and experience in working with nonprofit organizations. Odegua advocates for gender equality in education and support for education of children from poor socioeconomic resource communities in Africa.

Odegua obtained her first degree in chemical engineering and a Masters degree in industrial and production engineering. She previously served as a process engineer at Psaltry International Limited, an agro-food processing company in Nigeria. She has managed several computer science, engineering, and technology outreach programs for girls, both for JOEF and the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), for eight years.

CODE with GIRLS Lagos is a three-day technology workshop that will impact 60 secondary (high) school girls and 10 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) teachers from remote public secondary schools in Lagos State, Nigeria through hands-on computer programming activities. The workshop targets 60 underrepresented public secondary school girls ranging from 10 to 15 years old. The program will also aim to train 10 STEM secondary teachers who will be selected from the same schools as the girls and will learn along with the girls. The impact of this program will therefore continue even after the workshop is over, as these teachers will go back to their various schools and pass on their knowledge.

Girls will take part in hands-on computer programming activities, including Scratch programming (game design), electronic circuit design, programming with Arduino (design automatic night lights and fancy lights), mobile app development, and website development. Girls will also have the opportunity to meet women in technology who will be available as mentors at the event. These mentors will take part in a one-hour mentorship seminar entitled, “How to Tackle the Challenges of Being a Woman in Technology.”