My name is Nomsa Ngoma. I work as a Campus Innovation Intern under the Innovation Unit. I have a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Hanyang University in South Korea and I am currently obtaining my Master’s degree in Trade and Development from Zambian Open University.  

My first day at BongoHive was full of orientation meetings. My first orientation meeting was with Lukonga, the Executive Director.  My first impression of BongoHive was that it is a very chilled environment (although it became quite fast-paced as the weeks went on haha). Everyone was really friendly, I met the team members online first and then later met them in person.

In the 4 months that I have been with BongoHive, I am most proud of the day when I facilitated the human-centred design course for the Standard Chartered Women in Tech programme with Francis, the UI/UX Designer. As someone who learns by doing, I was able to apply the knowledge I had learnt from my team lead. Being trusted with such a responsibility elevated my confidence levels and increased my capacity.

One thing I keep realising in my role as Campus Innovation Intern is that you can’t fail, you can only learn. I want to keep learning and finding ways to apply these learnings to my life; whether it is through fostering innovation and creating room for others to think differently, learning is key. I want to be able to look back at the different projects I worked on and point out that I did that. I may not have known how to complete a certain task when I first started, but now it comes naturally.