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!