Becoming a Better Programmer | Indiegogo

My story

My name is Martha. I'm a 19 year old self taught programmer from Nairobi, Kenya. I have been admitted for the Hacker School summer 2013 batch. Hacker School, which is in New York, is a place to become a better programmer. This Campaign is to provide me with funds to attend Hacker School.

How did I get into programming? 

During my internship last summer I got access to a computer on a daily basis. It was pretty much the first time I had a computer all to myself. I started googling how the Internet and computers work.

Soon, learning code became my obsession. In June 2012, I took the little I had saved and bought a computer, installed Ubuntu and quit my internship.

I spent hours practicing at the Nairobi iHub. Online resources combined with the community helped me learn fast and in July I landed a job as a developer with a local Ruby on Rails boutique.

Programming opened an unknown world to me. I was planning on going to medical school, like most top-students in Kenya do. Now I'm taking a year off to explore software development. I'm especially excited about the world of open source software.

Best part about coding? Teaching and giving back to the community. My friends and I are planning classes to get even more Kenyan women excited about coding.

I have been able to learn quite a lot since I started programming. I primarily code in Ruby and Python (these are programming languages) and I currently learning C and Clojure. I want to learn as many languages as I can, and be the best programmer I can be.

Hacker school will help me be that programmer I want to grow into. I will have the time and resources to learn and grow without distractions. 

What I Need 

Hacker School is going to help me settle in New York and give me money for accomodation. This is really great. I still need funds for my visa, flight costs, and to get a better laptop. 

• I will spend about $200 to get my visa.
• My total transport costs will cost about $1500. This varies a lot depending on when I get to book. I came up with this figures from a fellow Kenyan who took a round trip to NY in Aug 2012.
• I need to get a better laptop to help learn code comfortably. The PC I am eyeing costs about $650. 

The money I get from this campaign will be able to get me all set for Hacker School! :)

I have updated this information after finding out that I can get the ticket for $1500 and a good laptop for $650. :)

The Impact

There is a big gender imbalance in the field of software development. By helping me go to Hacker School to become a better programmer, you are reducing this imbalance. From the knowledge I will acqure, I will be in a position to help other girls in Kenya get into this field confidently and excel in it!

My big ambition is to write my own programming language. Going to Hacker School is a great step towards this. The time I will spend learning, will prepare me to work on this task. I believe achieving this goal will be a great contribution to technology.

I want to teach code for a living. Going to Hacker School will make me a better teacher! I believe that in this time and age, everyone should have an opportunity to be taught how to program. By helping me, you are helping a kid learn how to code.