A 13-year-old Nigerian-born Emmanuella Mayaki, has set a new record as one of the youngest persons to be accepted into a University in the U.S. Her passion for Information and Communication Technology beginning from the basics of desktop publishing which includes Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Corel Draw came when she was aged just 7.
Some of the courses and certificates she obtained in pursuing this preferred career are a certificate in HTML fundamentals course, a certificate in PHP tutorial course, a certificate in CSS fundamentals course and a certificate in SQL fundamentals course.
Mayaki was accepted into the Programme for the Exceptionally Gifted (PEG) at the Mary Baldwin University, U.S. to study Computer Science in the spring. She scored a 91 percentile mark of 1,300 in her Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The young tech developer and programmer have always nursed a strong drive to share knowledge and positively impact people, especially the girl-child.
Mayaki’s personal accomplishment among others was the opening of an ICT Academy for girls in Abuja, Nigeria. at age 11, in the year 2020, which has provided sustainable empowerment the girl child especially in the area of digital technology. Her focus is on the girl-child, who falls within the age range of 6 to 15, which includes a beginners’ class to Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
The academy, named ‘CodeKid’, which was incorporated under the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990, on the second day of December 2020, with registration number (RC: 1741234), was set up to train the girl-child on the basics of computer literacy from simple Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint functions to the more complex skills like programming and coding..
Data Science Nigeria, invited young Mayaki as a guest speaker during their Interactive Workshop for kids and teens with the theme Mayaki noted that this programming school was influenced by her experience with the United Kingdom (UK) after-school club experience, which she successfully duplicated in Nigeria.
She has however being on several notable platforms nominated as a STEM icon by STEM Kids New York City (NYC). The organisation went on to name her as their inspiration after researching social justice issues around their target audience for their app. She has also been offered a teaching appointment at a tender age of 11 at Southfields Primary School in Coventry, England. She was also identified as one of the most influential, ground-breaking female change makers of our time, and an inspiration for young girls around the world.