Agien Petra

As someone who benefited from the poor and needy but intelligent students scholarship by the PEA in secondary school, I found Open Dreams to be exactly where I belonged. 

Their mission of creating equal access to education, especially to HALI Students spoke directly to my heart.

I'm currently pursuing my Master's degree in Data Science while serving as a Women Techmakers Ambassador. My love for building communities started early - I've organized and spoken at events at the Google Developer Groups in Bamenda, Bambili, and also the Google Developer Student Club, now GDG on Campus at the University of Bamenda.

At MboaLab Biotechnology Laboratory, I went from being an intern to becoming an Outreachy mentor. The highlight of this journey was being featured as [Outreachy's Mentor Spotlight] -A recognition that meant the world to me because mentoring young women in tech has become such an important part of who I am.

At Open Dreams, I get to combine my design skills with my passion for education. I create the designs for our podcast series, design our annual ànd event reports, and put together our Scholar of the Month magazines.  I also manage our Giving Friday fundraising campaign, which helps us support more students at Open Dreams.

I've spoken at various tech events across Cameroon, always with the same message: that everyone deserves a chance to succeed, regardless of their background. Open Dreams gives me the perfect platform to live out this belief every day.

Whether I'm mentoring others, designing materials that tell our scholars' stories, or organizing fundraising efforts, everything I do connects back to one simple truth - I want to help create the same opportunities for others that changed my life.