Scripting My Future
Growing up I had always tinkered with code. I worked at a Computer Centre where I wrote Python automation scripts for research and fun in my spare time, but I wouldn’t say that my tech journey officially began until May 2021. That’s when I enrolled in the African Leadership Experience Software Engineering program (ALX SE), a year-long intensive training program for aspiring Software Engineers.
After a whirlwind year of learning to code, I graduated from the program in June 2022 and landed a job as a Full-Stack Developer at Data Muse, a Kenya-based Advertising, Arts, and Media Company. This role lasted for 3 months, so it was time to hunt for jobs on my own.
I started freelancing while looking for other opportunities to continue my tech journey when I came across the MLH Fellowship on social media. They had just wrapped up their program and shared the experience of Fellows contributing to GitHub Docs, a project that powers GitHub’s official documentation and is used by millions of developers all around the world. As I did more research, I came across more and more inspiring stories from alumni. Someone always learned something new, merged their first open-source code, or even landed a job all while getting a stipend and mentorship.
Though I had been rejected once, I decided to apply again. That’s when I got the great news — I would be a Fellow in the Spring 2024 Fellowship!
Stepping into Open Source
The MLH Fellowship is rewarding, enlightening, and challenging. It’s one of the best things that can happen in 12 weeks for someone early in their tech career.
As a Fellow, I learned about open-source software development and made my first-ever contributions to OpenStack, a community-driven suite of services that enable powerful and customizable Open Source cloud computing. I started small, making documentation and bug fixes. By the end of the program, I was tackling new feature implementations.
I made 12 contributions total, with the most impactful one being improvements to the Ironic Bug Dashboard, a useful tool for reviewing newly filed bugs and assessing the status of ongoing bug resolutions. Alongside this contribution, I also added support beyond x86_64 to enable the provisioning of ARM64 architecture for fake-bare-metal-VMs in the Ironic Devstack Plugin.
As a Fellow, I learned so many new things. Most of the projects I had ever seen used GitHub issues. The OpenStack community actually uses Gerrit flow, so I had to learn a completely new system. I also dove into new topics like networking basics, server management protocols, computer hardware basics, and foundational cloud infrastructure concepts. Even after the Fellowship, learning more about these areas is on my to-do list.
If you’re an aspiring Fellow, tell your story. Share what makes you different. If you’re an incoming Fellow (congratulations!), don’t be afraid to ask those cringeworthy questions — seriously, everyone is thinking it, there just needs to be someone brave enough to ask. Asking questions is how you’ll learn and make the most of your time in the program. Lastly, take advantage of the time with your podmates. You’re not only there to learn but also to build relationships. MLH is more than hacking away all the time 😀
From Contributor to Mentor
The MLH Fellowship opened up so many doors for me. After contributing to OpenStack Ironic, I joined the G-Research Open Source Software team (GR-OSS), working on their Upstream team as a code contributor and reviewer for the Open Stack / Ironic and adjacent projects.
I never thought I would be accepted into the Fellowship, and I definitely didn’t think that I would make such an impact that I would land a job and be considered worthy of becoming a Core Reviewer with a project as large as OpenStack Ironic. Now I even have the opportunity to mentor an MLH Fellow during the Spring 2025 cohort!
Even with all the grit and dedication, I believe a significant part of my career progress comes from crossing paths with the right people and having the right opportunities aligned at the right time. None of this would have been possible if it weren’t for the awesome people supporting this program — shoutout to Jay Faulkner, my mentor during and after the Fellowship; the entire G-Research team for their support; the MLH Fellowship team for providing this opportunity; Pradyuman Dixit, my Pod Leader; and all of my podmates from the Spring 2024 program.
I can’t wait to see what other Fellows accomplish in the years to come.
