Community Spotlight: Eniola Olawumi Farinde

Celebrating 2024-2025 Fellow Eniola Olawumi Farinde! Eniola grew up in Nigeria, and moved to the US to pursue her love of coding in 2023. Eniola is a resilient, driven, highly creative Computer Science and Cybersecurity major at Grambling State University. Eniola enjoys drawing, designing new technologies, and building community. She is currently the Senior Resident Assistant for her campus’s Freshman Village, the Treasurer of the African American Association on campus, and the Public Relations Officer for the Association of Computing Machinery.

Eniola is passionate about coding. As she recalls, “I’ve always loved coding. I started coding at 9 years old when my parents enrolled me in a coding school. All my classmates were boys, and I felt out of place. I fell in love with coding, and it was difficult. The teacher and the class didn’t see girls as being able to code, so I learned to code on my own. There was a lot of self-teaching and over-night reading. It gave me the mentality and mindset that I can do anything I set my mind to.”

Eniola is working for a future where technology can make life better for everyone. She reminds us to hold excitement for the possibilities of AI, and is curious about using AI to create more ease for everyone. She recently trained an AI chatbot to support HBCU students, and sees AI as, “taking our community, our society into a whole new dimension, a different world.”

Eniola spoke to the importance of racial equity in tech and reflected on learning about Code2040 from 2023-2024 Fellow Princess Sopeju: “Princess shared that Code2040 is a place to feel welcome, to be part of a community. In the U.S., the tech space is very big, but it doesn’t favor Black women. So, when a Black woman told me she felt welcome at Code2040, I knew it must be a very good space. I fell in love with Code2040.”

Eniola encourages prospective Fellows to, “just apply and put your best foot forward”—

“Apply! Apply early, apply fast, and prepare for your interview. And then, be a very good ambassador for Code2040. We’re trying to bring more people into the Fellows Program because it’s a very good, very holistic program.”

Thanks for being part of our community, Eniola!