Their feat resonated round the world. Five girls from Nigeria beat their counterparts from other parts of the globe to win the Technovation competition in the United States (U.S.) last month. Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu, the woman who groomed the girls from Regina Pacies Secondary School in Onitsha, Anambra State, told The Nation that they were the most determined and hard working among the girls she met. EMMA ELEKWA (Onitsha) reports.
Nigeria’s victory on the global stage in the 2018 Technovation world pitch competition (junior category) last month threw up five new tech queens and their mentor, Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu. The girls, Promise Nnalue, Jessica Osita, Nwabuaku Ossai, Adaeze Onuigbo and Vivian Okoye, from Regina Pacies Secondary School in Onitsha, Anambra State, make up Team Save a Soul that dazzled the world in the United States (U.S.).
Ugwu, CEO of Edufun Technik STEM, groomed the girls for five months to create the FD (Fake Drug) Detector App that beat other finalists from Spain, India, Turkey, Uzbekistan and China, to clinch the $10,000 prize money.
FD Detector App is designed to help the public determine if a drug is genuine and safe for consumption to check the high number of deaths from fake drugs, especially in the Southeast.
Prior to Technovation, Ugwu, a Psychology graduate of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka had implemented several programmes with Regina Pacies School that exposed its pupils to coding, web design and development.
She said since 2014, her organisation had been preaching the gospel of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education to young girls between ages three and 18 in a fun way.
She said the firm, which is also into robotics, coding and engineering designs, partnered with Regina Pacies to train the pupils.
The road to the Technovation award was not paved with gold. Uchenna, who also has an MBA in Business and Entrepreneurship from the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University Illinois, had to convince the school to take part in the competition and charged the pupils nothing for the training she offered at her Edufun Technik hub at the Shoprite Mall in Onitsha.
She said: “When I learnt about the competition, I went back to the school and convinced them of the benefits the students would derive participating in the exercise.
“Before then, I have had a long term relationship with them for over a year. After sharing my vision with the Director, he saw my passion and quickly granted me access to the children.
“I started the training in January and it was free of charge. We came together when they were in school and during break, they came to the centre.
“Three times a week, I spend about three to four hours with them. I started with the ideation, market development and survey.
“We use the computers and the internet to focus on their apps and develop a problem they want to solve. They actually found out the problems prevalent in the community and attempted solving them.
“We had two teams – not only the team that won; we had the senior team and the junior category.”
Ugwu said it was initially difficult for the children to embrace STEM Education because of its absence from the school curriculum. However, regular training threw up the winning team – surprisingly not the most brilliant but those who endured to the end.
“We had over 30 of the students that initially showed interest. But along the line, some of them got discouraged and dropped because they did not find any value to the programme. Since it is not part of the school courses, they were not expecting grades from it.
But the ones that stayed were more determined than others, even when they were not the most brilliants. We have brilliants among them that did not join,” she said.
Fourteen year-old Jessica Ogochukwu Osita said she did not find it easy learning about coding, App development and all that.
She credits the mentors at the Edufun Technik hub for encouraging her to keep at it. Today, she does not regret sticking with the process as she developed skills and discovered talents she did not know she had in the long run.
Jessica, who nurses the dream of owning the biggest pharmacy in the world, said: “The first time I went there, I could not flow. They said they wanted to know how I can pitch before they can accept me. I marveled the day I pitched, and that was how I joined them.
“So, we continued working, sleepless nights, brainstorming, it was tough but we excelled through determination and consistency,” she added.
Jessica said learning she was going to the U.S. was like a dream. She was the first in her family to achieve such feat.
She said; “When we were announced winners in Lagos and that we are going to America, I was very excited. My family was excited too and proud of me and I was also proud of myself.
“Everybody in the house was excited, like ‘Ogochukwu is going to America’; ‘Ogochukwu will first all of us to go to America’; ‘Ogochukwu will see the white man’s land’.
But even before Team Save our Soul qualified to go to the U.S. Ugwu said she counted every progress they made in the competition as a win.
“At each step we moved, I was feeling we are winners already. When they announced that we have to come to Abuja to pitch, I said in my social media that going to Abuja is winning for us already. The happiness that we are going to compete with other students from the country is winning for us.
“The students saw this as an opportunity to showcase themselves and they worked hard, giving it all their best.
“When it was announced that we were going to San Francisco, I told them that we have won because going to San Francisco alone, is winning,” Uchenna said.
Technovation may be over but the gains from preparing for it will continue for Ogochukwu, who said the contest exposed her to so many things, including public speaking and confidence.
“Now, I can speak in the public confidently without shivering or fidgeting with the microphone. I can talk to you eyeball to eyeball; I can engage in a very high discussion; I can bring out new ideas; I can tutor other young girls.
“I did not feel intimidated by the whites. Apart from their friendly disposition, I thought my idea was more important than theirs. I did not think that because they are white and technologically advanced, they will win me. I felt I had a superior idea,” she said.
Mrs Chinyere Gloria Nnalue, mother of Promise, another member of the Technovation team, is happy today that her daughter’s persistence won over her own doubts about the competition.
“Initially, I did not understand what it was they were doing. I told her to face her studies and finish her secondary education first. That she cannot put all her fingers in her mouth at once.
“She continued explaining to me what the lesson is all about. If she comes back for holidays and I prevent her from going for the lessons, she will cry for long until I let her go.
“The day she came back and told me that they are going to Abuja for a competition, I was skeptical. But she insisted that she is going.
“When they came back from Abuja, she told me that they were among the people that took first position, that their result will be evaluated online to know if they are qualified to go to U.S for the competition.
“When school resumed, she called me one day and told me that the results are out and that they won. She is among the junior team and that they are going to U.S. I took the whole thing as a joke,” said the elated mother.
Mrs Nnalue appealed to the government to offer her daughter and others scholarship for the feat.
Director of Regina Pacies Secondary School, Rev. Fr. Vincent Ezeaka, said the victory did not surprise him as his pupils were very serious about the programme.
He said he was challenged by their comportment and boldness, especially in proving to the whites that they were not inferior.
Ezeaka said: “I felt that we will win because their training was serious. Every day, they were undergoing training on how they can speak to people and how to defend themselves and their project.
“In fact, I fasted and prayed over the competition before we started moving. Even the U.S embassy gave us visa three days to the competition so we rushed everything to meet up time. We did our best and left the rest to God.
“I thank them for their courage to stand in front of the white people to defend the Mobile App they designed called FD Director; a Mobile App that people can use to detect fake drugs.”
The Reverend Father thanked their mentor and other teachers for their contributions to the success.
He advised teachers in other schools across the country to take science seriously and explore other methods of impacting knowledge to their students.
His words, “Those I met there advised me to tell our students to be serious in science – especially in coding aspect of computer, because over there in Silicon Valley, most of the things they do is mainly on coding and ICT.
“For them, with time, everything in the world will be computerized and what is behind all these things is coding. So, I advise that students should be serious with their ICT studies and teachers should also find a way of making their courses practical.”
Technovation is a breakthrough for Uchenna’s crusade to reach more young people with STEM Education. She told The Nation of plans to explore more opportunities in other schools in Anambra State and beyond. Already, her firm has reached over 3,000 pupils with STEM Education. With this win, she expects more schools to open their doors to STEM Education.
“I won’t allow the victory achieved to becloud my vision. There are hundreds of girls out there who are willing to be mentored.
“With this achievement, it will no longer be difficult to convince schools to embrace the programme,” said Uchenna, who also hopes to partner with NAFDAC in the fight against fake drugs.
“NAFDAC need to register with us to assist people in detecting fake drugs through the use of the App installed in their phones,” she added.