By Demi Adeniyi
No fewer than 120 senior secondary school students, drawn from five secondary schools within Agege Education District One, Lagos State have won scholarships to undergo Information and Technology training as part of activities aimed at marking Nigeria’s 62nd Independence anniversary.
The Managing Director of Avancee Pinnacle, Mr Tolu Oluyemi who disclosed this at a Teens Enlightenment Forum organised in collaboration with Teens Upskilling Foundation, at the B.O.S Hall, LTV, Lagos, said Avancee Pinnacle, through its subsidiary PayOne Payment Solutions, would by the training arm the students with requisite skills with which they can become tech savvy and use technology to solve the myriad of human challenges.
Oluyemi who noted that the scholarship will not affect their present academic engagements, or school programme, said his firm, in collaboration with TUF, intends to identify those among the students who have a flash or some interest in technology and help build such students to the point where they would be adding value not only to their families, but the society.
He added that the idea behind this year’s theme: Teens, Technology and Tapping, is to build the identify teens who have some basic interest in technology, and tap them by introducing them through adapting tech-based curriculum round their academic programmes in such a way that they would have the best of two worlds.
“Our desire is to see these young ones start their journey into adding value to their environment. We want to see how they could be mentored to identify problems plaguing the society and be assisted to develop apps or programmes that could help solve those problems.
“Technology helps man to solve challenges. Once you introduce technology into a process, you optimize performance. Once you are able to provide such transforming service, you make money,” he said.
He urged the beneficiaries not to lose sight of their interest. You don’t have to be a genius to be in technology. You don’t need to be a software developer. Your success as a tech savvy person is in identifying challenges and coming up with product that can help in solving those challenges.
A data scientist and Team Leader with Microsoft, Engr Ola Oyinbooke, said technology goes beyond Yahoo-Yahoo, and urged all the would-be beneficiaries to apply themselves fully into what they would be taught in order to make a difference in their life.
“What I can tell you students is that the world is changing to favour you. All you need to do is to apply yourself to what you are being taught. You are not to young to develop your talent in technology. You are lucky that you got the opportunity to get a head start. Make the best of it.
The guest speaker, Dr Leonard Okonkwo urged the students to pay closer attention to the mental health as it poses the greatest threat to depression.
Okonkwo who spoke on Teens Anxiety and Depression said people should watch out for what he called five Ds: Deviation, Distress, Dysfunction, Dangerous and Duration, while the symptoms of anxiety, could range from feeling nervous or restless, increase heart rate, heavy breathing, trembling, poor concentration and poor sleep, substance abuse, and social withdrawal, among others, while depression, which he defined as a mood disorder characterized by persistent feeling of sadness, has as symptoms constant irritability, change in sleep patterns, fatigue and addiction.
To get out of depression, Okonkwo urged a change in the way we see things, deep breathing exercise, listening to music and physical exercise, laughter and seeking professional advise.
Convener of TUF Engr Idowu Ibrahim, said the Teens Upskilling Foundation in conjunction with PayOne, a subsidiary of Avancee Pinnacle intends to make many youths to fully discover the positive potentials inherent in technology and how to leverage it to chase their dreams.
The scholarship awarded to the students would help greatly in helping these students maximise the opportunities available to them.
The Education Secretary of Education District I, Agege, Dr Oyebukola Rosanwo commended the organisers for the innovative forum aimed at generating new crop of technology driven youths who will see the potentials beyond fraud and can be of benefit to the people.
One of the students, Mary Akintonde, an SSII Student of African Model College, who described herself as a web developer, commended Avancee Pinnacle for the Scholarship. “When I got here this morning, I never knew U could be a beneficiary of this scholarship. I am so happy and I want to assure the organisers that we would make the best use of the opportunity available to us in order to make the best out of life.
Another student, David Michael from Highland School, Ifako-Ijaiye said he looked forward to learning so much about how he could use Phyton and other such apps to improve as a software developer.
Among schools present at the forum are; Highland School, Ifako, Sanmori Grammar School, African Church Model College, Ifako and others.