By 2018 Michelle Tyutu had completed her secondary education at Funda High School in the Eastern Cape and attended PQ Vundla Adult Education Centre to upgrade her maths marks. She was fired-up by her favourite author, Robin Sharma, and inspired by Elon Musk’s fearlessness but hadn’t decided on a career. Her dad wanted her to become a Chartered Accountant and her teachers knew she could be successful if she went into physics.
“I grew up with extended family in Queenstown and now live with my mom in Soweto, but I’ve always had big dreams,” says Michelle, “I had all these ideas floating around in my head which involved technology. I wanted to create an app to stop hackers and to create quality apps for women to express themselves and maybe even an app to connect investors and female entrepreneurs!”
“When I went to Harambee to look into their Youth Employment Accelerator options, I saw a WeThinkCode_ poster saying it was a “one of a kind” training academy with a fresh and innovative approach to coding education. At that moment, I just knew that this was the right direction for me. This is what I wanted to do and now had the opportunity to do it! Although I was nervous about taking the next step I applied and was accepted. And the rest is history – in the making.”
Now Michelle is in her first year at WeThinkCode_ and can already see her ambition to create quality tech products coming to life. She has the tools, support and access to world class coders who will enable her to reach her dream of becoming one of the best developers in the world.
“I am now in a position to think seriously about how to make the inventions I pictured. Like robots, systems apps and ways in which tech can help women and our communities – it’s my time to just study, study, study. And I love it!”
