Outreachy Week 1 - Introduce Yourself
My name is Mbah Redeem Anjoh (@Redeem Grimm). I am a self-taught software engineer and designer who began learning to code and build digital products at the age of 15. Without formal software engineering education, I embraced the belief that in a digital world, skills can be acquired through discipline, curiosity, and consistent practice, far beyond the walls of a traditional classroom.
Due to the ongoing Anglophone Crisis in Cameroon, I was forced to leave school. Rather than abandon my ambitions, I made the deliberate decision to pursue my technology career full-time. Since then, I have contributed to world-renowned open-source projects, including the Julia Programming Language, The Tor Project, just to name a few. While building personal projects and earning industry certifications to continuously sharpen my skills.
The journey has been far from easy. Along the way, I have faced significant hardship and persecution, experiences I plan to document in an upcoming blog post. Yet adversity only strengthened my resolve and deepened my commitment to my goals.
In 2022, after three consecutive rejections, I applied to the Outreachy internship program for the fourth time. Refusing to give up, I approached the process with renewed focus and resilience. That persistence paid off. I was selected for the Outreachy December 2022 to March 2023 internship cohort.
This milestone represents more than an internship. It is a testament to perseverance, self-belief, and the power of open source to create global opportunities.
I’m Interning at ODK-X and currently working on the project "Custom UI components for ODK-X mobile apps"
My Core Values
I do have many values that govern my life but I’ll pick up just 3.
1. Freedom
I define Freedom as you being able to do what you want with your life without fear of judgment or criticism, You being able to live your life to the fullest without anything holding you down or enslaving you. I value freedom so much, as that’s the only way I can unleash my full potentials.
2. Health
Health is something most people take for granted. Without good health you won’t be able to do the things you love in life. You won’t be able to accomplish your dreams, goals, and purpose. Without good health you won’t be able to code or design. Treat Your Health With Respect If You Want To Accomplish Purpose!
3. Purpose
What is Purpose? It’s that one thing (passion, etc) that wakes you up every morning. It’s that one thing that summarizes your entire existence.
Purpose is very essential to everything that has breath. Without purpose you’re useless. Every one of us has a purpose and that’s the reason why we are here on Earth. Living a purpose driven life is what I consider a key priority.
Why Outreachy?
A year back, a friend recommended Outreachy to me, that’s how I got to know about Outreachy.
What is Outreachy?
Outreachy provides internships in open source and open science. Outreachy provides internships to people subject to systemic bias and impacted by underrepresentation in the technical industry where they are living.
Now, why did I choose Outreachy?
- It’s Open source
- It’s diverse
- It’s paid
- It’s remote
- It has one of my values ( Freedom )
And to add, the project I’m working on has my stack which is Java, UI/UX, and Android Dev 🤗, and I believe Outreachy is the platform that is going to skyrocket my career to the next level!
Thanks For Reading, See you in the next post!