Celebrating 2023-2024 Fellow Princess Sopeju! Princess grew up in Nigeria and moved to the US in 2022. She’s an extremely driven and creative Computer Science Major minoring in Cyber Security at Suffolk University. She loves connecting with people, bringing her creativity into coding, and working in solidarity to help people. She is “fascinated by using technology for innovative results,” and is excited by the possibilities of tech for building a better world. She says, “it gives me immense joy knowing that I can use code to work on projects to help people and society.”
Princess is committed to being in community, and currently holds leadership roles in UNICEF and the International Student Union. She is also an active & former E-Board member of the African Student Union. Princess organizes events and creates space for Black students to feel welcome on campus. She shared, ”People have helped me become who I am right now, and connecting with people and sharing resources makes me happy. It’s important to me to be connected to people’s struggles.”
Princess wants to “leverage technology to create more access and ease for people with disabilities. I have a younger brother with a disability, and I want to have an organization where we design and make affordable technologies to support people with disabilities in their daily activities, and to bring them ease.”
Princess inspires us to bring creativity into our work. She shares, “Creativity is a big part of my personality. With CS, I feel like I can reflect my creativity and who I am through my ideas for cool projects, apps, or websites. Every time I solve a coding problem, I feel so happy and joyful.”
To prospective Fellows, Princess says, “Code2040 is a really good platform to gain resources and connect with other people. In your application, be yourself by sharing how the Fellows Program will be helpful for you, and then when you get in, try to be very active: ask questions, share your experiences, connect with people. Connecting with people is really the whole purpose. The people I connected with made me feel like I was not alone, and like I can do it.”
Thanks for being part of our community, Princess!
Community Spotlight: Nyaradzo Valery Mararanje
Celebrating 2023-2024 Fellow Nyaradzo Valery Mararanje! (She goes by both Nyaradzo and Valery. Both names are used interchangeably here). Nyaradzo grew up in Zimbabwe and moved to the US in 2022. Valery is a joyful, vibrant Computer Science major, Business minor at the University of Rochester. She loves dance, comedy, and creating community. She dreams of a world of abundant happiness and mutual care, and is excited about the magic in coding and the possibilities of AI.
Nyaradzo is committed to community, and initiates collaboration in her CS classes. As Valery shared, “If we don’t work together to do better, what’s the point? Let’s all work together, being intentional.’” She’s a member of the National Society for Black Engineers and Ma’Frisah, a campus club practicing modern and traditional African dance forms. “I like sharing my culture and I do that through dance. We each choreograph a routine, and we get to share our different cultures. Our differences make it more interesting.”
Valery reminds us of technological possibilities for building a more livable world. “It fascinates me how code can actually build something. When I’m writing code, it’s magical. I find myself more and more interested in AI. There is so much more to explore. We have not reached the potential for what AI can actually do.”
When Nyaradzo imagines a world that could be, she imagines a world of abundance, “where people are genuinely happy. I feel like we all have those moments where we are living in stress, and stress can be contagious. Some of the things we hope for and pray for, we are actually living today. I want a world that is genuinely helping each other, where there is mutual care.”
To prospective Fellows, Nyaradzo says, “Believe in yourself and have confidence that you can actually do it. You will never know you can do it until you actually do. Look what you can learn from Code2040: building a community of other people who look like you, gaining knowledge, people to mentor you, so much. What you actually gain is more than you can have imagined!”
Thank you, Nyaradzo, for being part of the Code2040 Community!
Code2040 Launches a Community Spotlight and Commits to Relationship Building in 2024
In 2024, Code2040 is committing deeply to relationship building — because relationships are at the heart of the work that we do for racial equity. We are committing to being in touch more, inviting folks in the Code2040 community into conversation with us, and creating more opportunities for us to be in joy and dreaming together. Because we want to be more connected with our amazing network of Black and Latinx technologists, we’re launching a new monthly Community Spotlight starting this month as part of a celebration of Black History. Each month, we’re dedicating time to connect with our Fellows and Alumni, listening to their stories and dreaming technological futures of more livable, more free worlds together.
Code2040 is part of a vibrant community of Black and Latinx technologists who are actively shaping the future. In the spirit of Black History Month, we extended our first invitation to participate in our Community Spotlight to our Black Alumni and Fellows, and first we are featuring, Nyaradzo Valery Mararanje, a current Fellow.
Here’s a teaser of our spotlight on Nyaradzo Valery: Nyaradzo is a vibrant, joyful Computer Science major at the University of Rochester. She loves dance, comedy, and creating community. She dreams of a world characterized by abundant happiness and mutual care, and is excited about the magic in coding and the possibilities for AI.
For the whole spotlight, check out our socials!
Our Fellows have inspired me since I started at Code2040 in 2015, and every year, I learn more from Fellows about how I want to show up in community and about what racial equity work looks like. With the year ahead of us, connecting with our Fellows and staying connected with our Alumni is crucial in building our collective capacity for creating change.
It’s an election year, and we can expect issues impacting racial equity to be front and center. We are facing a recession, and the backlash against racial justice is gaining momentum and legal traction. Already this year, over 30 pieces of legislation have been introduced across the country that would impact DEIB programs from universities and public institutions. Simultaneously, the tech industry continues to divest from racial equity. The backlash against racial equity at the collegiate level will undoubtedly negatively impact the diversity of our workforce. With the innovation economy shaping our world, we need to be supporting our Black and Latinx Computer Science majors and early career professionals more than ever.
Supporting our Black and Latinx college students and early tech career professionals is about offering them connection, celebrating the work they do, the people they are, and nurturing their creativity and imaginations. It’s listening to them tell their stories, sharing resources and networks, and showing up to be in community with them.
I approach racial equity work with a commitment to Black Liberation. I know that white supremacy and racism try to tell us that there is only scarcity and never enough; that there is not room for our joy, our love, our imaginations and creativity. What I know deeply is that our collaboration, connection, and collectivity is an antidote, a loving balm that brings us closer to the world we all deserve — one that holds us all in expansive space for rest, joy, and to truly thrive. Racial equity work is about creating space for joy, for rest, and re-imagining systems and structures so that Black and Latinx folks can thrive.
Working for racial equity is a commitment to living otherwise, and to showing up each day to build with people who are committed to creating technologies for more possibility, more livable worlds. As we work and dream toward a world of abundance, where everyone has enough, where imaginations thrive and rest is deeply valued; we also need space and time to be in connection with each other. Our Community Spotlight is one way we are creating space for our community.