A Developer Student Club Lead is a passionate leader at university who is dedicated to helping peers learn and connect. Google collaborates with DSC Leads once a year who are pursuing an undergraduate or graduate university degree and supports them as they start and grow their on-campus community.
When I joined Uganda Christian University in September 2018, it came to my attention that there was a gap between courses in the Faculty of Science and Technology. To make matters worse, there was a gap between the different classes within the same course in my small department. Coming from Google Developer Groups Kampala under the leadership of Solomon Opio then, I could not just stand by and let this go on much longer. At the end of my second semester in 2019, the opportunity to start a Developer Student Club (DSC) opened up around May that year.


DSCs are university-based community groups for students. Students from all undergraduate or graduate programs with an interest in growing as a developer are welcome. By joining a DSC, students grow their knowledge in a peer-to-peer learning environment and build solutions for local businesses and their community.

 I applied and submitted it on the last day! I remember that time I was in Lira district attending the Technovation Girls Regional Pitch event in the capacity of speaker and judge. It was my first time being a judge and speaking to a group of young girls between 10–18 years of age. After the interactions I had with them, I felt more than inspired to try and find a way to help my peers back at university when school opened. MAKU sent me a link to apply to become a DSC lead and that very day I began my application, made a video and submitted the following day.
After a month or so, I got an email for the next stage of the application process which was an online interview. Interestingly enough, the gentleman who interviewed me had a similar background as me (architecture to technology) and we just hit it off from there. In August, as I was attending a farewell dinner for my brother, I got an email congratulating me upon my acceptance as a DSC Lead.

I was excited and quite frankly scared to actually start something new. Normally, I find it comfortable continuing from where someone stopped because I would have some sort of reference to guide me but here I was starting something of my own and moreover supported by Google Developers! The pressure was real and even increased when I got to attend the Developer Student Clubs Sub Saharan Summit that happened in Accra, Ghana in September 2019 and met over 90 other chosen leads from across Africa. The majority already had clubs at their schools and were part of the core teams at their campuses. They shared their experiences, thoughts, and plans which highly encouraged those of us starting a club.

Before the summit, I notified the University about the good news, formed my core team and also found a Faculty advisor. I left the summit so energized and well equipped to officially launch the club back home. I met with my team and we came up with a tentative plan for our time in office. The semester was already quarter way and we had to do everything so fast. We organized our info session and shockingly people actually attended. I say shockingly because I was so uncertain of how students would respond to the idea of having a developer community despite the fact that I had anticipated a bigger audience but eventually the attendance number did not matter anymore.

One thing you should not do as a first-time lead is to compare your club to others. I struggled with comparisons between my club and those in West Africa because their attendance did not have less than 50 people for some of the clubs there. I thought I was not doing something right and that I was failing as a lead but as it turns out, I was not. In fact, I was doing pretty well and amazing because I was having meetups and reporting them which Auwal MS, Program Manager for Google Developers in Sub Saharan Africa, always emphasized! Might I add, he is the most awesome and highly encouraging and open PgM I have met and actually among the first Googlers I know :)
In the first semester, we as a core team dictated the activities to have. We had web development and android sessions for 8 weeks and one meetup on cloud technologies. We also got the opportunity to attend Devfest Kampala organized by Google Developer Groups Cloud Kampala and supported by Google Developers. We were so excited and it was the first time in a long time that the Department of Computing and Information technology had a group of students going to attend something. It was unheard of seeing developers going somewhere so that for me was a good achievement :).

In the second semester, we decided to get feedback from the community to determine our course of action for that semester so we deviated from the plans we had originally made at the launch. As a lead, it is important to have an open platform where community members can be able to express what they would like to change, add or have and indeed, what we had planned was not what they needed or wanted at that time. We had planned to continue with web development and android sessions but after carrying out a survey, we had to change to python, career guidance, cybersecurity, Wordpress, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, startup mentorship, and eventually due to demand, JavaScript sessions. We had plenty of room for adjustment and had no problem whatsoever to move with the demand. Luckily enough, the DSC’s are not restricted to having sessions on only Google products and platforms and so there is plenty of flexibility. However, I would highly encourage you to have at least one session on Google technologies or use the resources provided. Read more...

WRITTEN BY

Patience Ankunda


Computer Scientist, DSC Lead Uganda Christian University, Digital Marketer, Women in Tech-Enthusiast and just an ordinary writer.