A Bright Future in Computer Science

If you’ve been following Lelt news over the years, chances are you’ve already read about Getahun Fekadu. This star student joined our program ten years ago when he was entering 4th grade. Until September 2018, Getahun never had access to computers. Living in a small 2-room home with his mother, he barely had access to electricity. But that year he started technology courses at Lelt’s Volo Computer Lab. Having a natural affinity for computer coding and programming, Getahun quickly rose through the introductory classes, and into the advanced computer science courses. In his first year of study, Getahun designed a computer game that he shared through MIT’s SCRATCH website globally, and continued on to learn Python and Java Script. His work in technology varies from the academic to creative, writing formulas to solve mathematical problems and designing beautiful website home pages.

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This summer, Getahun interned with Lelt’s Director of IT, Tesfa Elias. Through Mr. Elias’s mentorship, Getahun taught Basic HTML and Introduction to CSS classes to middle school children for the entire summer session.

Getahun is currently attending his sophomore year at St. Mary’s University in Ethiopia, majoring in Computer Sciences. He is one of the top scoring students in his class, with a cumulative GPA of 3.70. Getahun is this year’s recipient of the Erika Klein Memorial Scholarship.

Thanks to a generous grant from Volo Foundation, Lelt runs technology labs that are powered with renewable energy in Ethiopia.