Fleurhof matriculant excels at international tech programme and brings learnings back to her community
A local Grade 12 learner wants to highlight the importance of education in her community after achieving stellar results in an international science and technology programme.
Khanyisa Xaba, a matric learner and former head girl from Future Nation Schools: Fleurhof, never thought she would be one of only 126 young women to travel to America for the highly esteemed TechGirls Programme.
The TechGirls Programme is an intensive three-week training programme to instil leadership and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in young girls from across the globe.
Khanyisa’s interest in coding and robotics was birthed at her school in grades eight and nine during her computing lessons when she realised how well she performed in the subject.
She said that she was very nervous about the trip and what to expect, but, as soon as they touched down in America, her nerves settled down and turned into excitement.
“We were briefed about the programme calendar and what was expected of us. We were assigned to our different pods, which are the different focus groups of the courses we selected, and I was part of the ‘Rhythm’ pod where we merged music and technology by making songs using coding.”
Khanyisa and her fellow participants worked hard during their stay, which also included a stint at Virginia Tech, where they participated in activities such as STEM instruction, leadership clinics, and team-building exercises. They also had the opportunity to experience university life and get a better understanding of tertiary education and life after high school.
The programme concluded with the Community Immersion and STEM Career Exploration where the young women spent time with their host family and explored their host community through job shadowing and networking.
Part of being a TechGirls participant is the completion of a Community Action Project (CAP) to positively impact other people around them. Khanyisa’s CAP consisted of her visiting her primary school, Princess Primary, where she held a STEM seminar for 191 grade seven girls focusing on Technology and the ways they can transform their communities using technology.
Khanyisa concluded by saying, “The only person who can push you to be the best version of yourself is you; there is no time to wait on others to motivate or encourage you to go after what you want. As women, should all work together towards normalising females in STEM by actively choosing to not identify as a ‘girl’ in construction or ‘the first female engineer’. You are human before you are a woman, you are you!”
Khanyisa is currently writing her final exams and hopes to pursue a Bachelor of Science Degree in Information and Technology, specifically Security and Network Engineering, next year.
