In my last post on Digital Jam 3.0 (read it here:https://petchary.wordpress.com/2014/02/07/jammin-digitally-the-mentor/) I talked to one of the wise and wonderful mentors guiding the young participants, and listened to his inspiring presentation. During the recent mentorship session at the World Bank office in Kingston, I also met and chatted with some of the young people working on their projects for an apps competition (in four categories) that forms part of the program. The room was filled to capacity; there was no shortage of ideas and questions and collaborations and small discussions in every corner.
While grabbing a cup of coffee, I met with Matheo Nepaul and Ikeim Blake from Frome Technical High School, way out in the rural west of Jamaica. They got up extremely early to be at the session, but the effort was well worth it, they said. Matheo is interested in becoming a computer programmer; Ikeim wants to go into architectural design, having acquired a taste for it in Technical Drawing class at school. I told him about the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest man-made structure in the world. I hope he has looked it up by now.
I sat down next to two students from a different part of the island, in the main room. Chamar Channer is pursuing a Management and Information Systems course at Portmore Community College. His first choice had been Psychology (“I wanted to understand people,” he said). But then, Digital Jam 3.0 is all about people, isn’t it. Who had inspired Chamar, I asked? His CAPE teacher, Miss Braham, he said (CAPE is the Advanced Level exam in the Caribbean). She had suggested he might enjoy computer programming. And he did. He also loves languages; all about communication.
“I’m enjoying it,” said Chamar of the Digital Jam 3.0 program. “It’s fun…almost scary.” He laughed. “There’s so much to learn…Nothing actually ends.”
Chamar is a member of Portmore Community College’s seven-person team, working in the e-Learning category on an app that will help early childhood and primary school students with Mathematics. Their deadline is February 16. One of his colleagues, 20-year-old Vanessa Mullings, says she is the only woman in a class of fourteen, studying Management & Information Systems with a focus on Entrepreneurship. With a broad smile, she proudly told me she is currently top of the class, and plans to stay there. Her main concern now is how to pursue her studies (moving on to a Bachelor’s) while keeping it affordable. She is juggling finances and reviewing her options. “At first I felt intimidated,” said Vanessa. For some reason, IT still seems to attract more young men than women in Jamaica; but looking around the room, I was glad to see a pretty good representation of young women, and hope this trend will continue. There are opportunities for all.
Then Vanessa’s bright smile reappeared: “I just love programming.”
You can follow Digital Jam 3.0 (Caribbean Edition) on Twitter @digitaljam3 and find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalJam3
And as Chamar said, the learning never ends.
Petchary's Blog 