Your Django Story: Meet Emily Karungi

This is a post in our Your Django Story series where we highlight awesome ladies who work with Django. Read more about it here.

Emily is a woman in tech. She recently completed a software engineering degree. Emily has been a lead at Google Developer Groups, she’s also the founder of the Django Girls Kampala chapter, co-founder of Coder in 90 and one of the core members of Girl Geek Kampala and WOPA (Women Passion).  Emily is passionate about teaching and learning.

How did your story with code start?

When I finished high school, I wanted to do Telecommunications Engineering at university.Unfortunately, I was not able to raise the points to do this course. Software Engineering was my second choice and this is what I did at university. I sucked at programming, we always did our class assignments in groups of five and I would do all the theory work and leave out anything practical or anything that had code in it to the boys in the group. At some point, I felt doing Software Engineering was a wrong decision.

Two years into the course, a friend of mine introduced me to Girl Geek Kampala, a mentorship program that runs at OutBox, a tech incubation hub in Uganda. Girl Geek Kampala was a stepping stone for me. I wrote my first piece of code in Ruby (ooopss…), it was a simple calculator and seeing the code run was unbelievable! I was very delighted! From that time, I started believing in myself, I believed that it was actually possible for me to write code, I started  solving simple tasks, and each successful task was a stepping stone to the next challenge.

I learn something new each day, I can’t say it has been smooth for me all the way, of course there are times when things get a little tough, but I take each failure as a lesson to make myself better, knowing that I’m not the first to fail.

 

What did you do before becoming a programmer?

Before becoming a programmer, I was an ordinary university student whose major target was obtaining the highest grades and getting a first class degree :-)

 

What do you love the most about coding?

When I try fixing a bug for days, the moment I get it fixed, it makes me feel like a superstar!

 

Why Django?

Django is one of the most popular frameworks in Python. During my internship, it was the framework of choice. I worked with an SMS framework built on top of it called RapidSMS. My mentor was very supportive and made Django exciting. My class group built our final year project all in Python with the backend being Django.

Django has a supportive community, and when you’re stuck, it is easy to find help!

 

What cool projects are you working on at the moment/planning on working on in the near future?

Right now, I’m super excited about a venture with my co-founder!! Our focus is on building a strong coding school with emphasis on online mentorship and at relatively low costs for everybody. You can find out all about it here: http://coderin90.com

 

What are you the most proud of?

I’m proud that I’m able to get out of my comfort zone. This has enabled me to achieve some amazing feats such as being able to build a community of girls that are super excited about programming. This is something I’ve done by being a peer programming buddy.

I’m also proud of the fact that I’ve been able to learn programming and that there is something new to learn each day, anything that comes out of this is nothing compared to being able to make your own self. My biggest achievement is being a self-made programmer :-)

 

What are you curious about?

I’m curious about what the future holds for me, for my family, and the exploits I set my hands to do. Each morning, I wake up and think about what awesome things I might do trying to live each day to the fullest. Also, what new iPhone might come out the next year (lol), this is the reason I’ve stuck with my old phone, there is always something new coming up the next year :-)

 

What do you like doing in your free time? What’s your hobby?

I like to attend parties (weddings)…. there is always something fresh to see :)

My hobby is watching soccer (or football as we call it in Africa). I believe I might become a top coding soccer player one day.

 

Do you have any advice/tips for programming beginners?

I think the best way to learn how to code is to try out new things, they need to get out of the comfort zone. They need to believe in themselves and know that programming is exciting despite the day-to-day frustration you will have. There will be days when you search for information but fail to find it, hang in there! Light is found at the end of the tunnel. There is a difference between a programmer and a “bad-a$$” programmer. To be a bad-a$$ programmer, you have to spend at least 10,000 hours (in a lifetime) practicing, learning, failing and reiterating, but open yourself to the idea of becoming a life-learner.

Mwebale muno (thanks) Emily! :)

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