At 18 years old, the young woman found a profession in technology and her desire to learn and teach

Jeniffer Marinho’s day is divided between working and studying. She is a student in the first year of the Systems Analysis and Development course and is doing an internship at FabLab Ramacrisna.

The Institute played a fundamental role in her choice of college: it was there that she had greater contact with the world of technology and decided to follow her passion as a profession. In addition to attending undergraduate classes, as a student, Jeniffer shares her knowledge with new students at the Institute, helping new young people to discover their skills. Discover the story below:

Girls in Network

Jeniffer met Ramacrisna in 2022, during an edition of the Entrepreneurship Fair, an initiative that is part of the Adolescent Apprentice project. Although she only discovered the Institute recently, it was long enough for her to take advantage of several courses.

The first was Net Girls, with technology classes and programming aimed at young women. And that’s when everything changed. Jeniffer, who was already interested in the topic, fell even more in love with the area.

“The course meant new directions, it opened my mind and made me see a world of possibilities in front of me. I saw that the technological world is not closed to women, they just need to look for and take advantage of opportunities”, she says.

Before Net Girls, Jeniffer had already taken some free online courses in the area. But Net Girls was decisive. So much so that she decided to encourage more girls. “While I was taking the course, I was in the 3rd year of high school and, at a cultural fair, my job was precisely to create a quiz game application with the theme of this fair. Additionally, I created some other useful apps to present at this event. After I presented this work, many girls that study at my school at that time became interested and today they take the Fablab courses,” she says.

After Net Girls, the young woman decided to dedicate herself even more to the technology area. It was then that she took all the other FabLab courses: Educational Robotics, AutoCad and 3D Printing.

Ramacrisna incentive

At the end of high school, Jeniffer had a choice to make. Her desire was to attend college, but she felt insecure about pursuing a career in the technology information area. Seeing the girl’s trajectory and her desire to learn, the coordinator of FabLab Ramacrisna, Fábio Marques, decided to encourage her to follow her dream.

“He saw potential in me that I didn’t even know I had. And so, during my course at Fablab, he brought out the best in me, showing me that I was capable of so much more. Fábio showed me that I could go to university and go even further. Because of this encouragement, three days after finishing high school, I started studying Systems Analysis and Development,” she says, full of gratitude.

And the course has been everything Jeniffer dreamed of: “I’ve really enjoyed it, I’ve learnt and developed a lot too! I’ve just started studying logic at university, but at Fablab I’ve had so many opportunities to develop, that everything I started studying at university I already know because of the courses we’ve been given, the coordinator’s teachings and the unity of the team, always exchanging knowledge,” she praises.

In addition to being a student, Jeniffer is also an intern at the Institute, where she shares her knowledge with new young people. For her, the experience is challenging, but very rewarding. “I love challenges, I love showing myself that I can, and that’s what happens all the time: I’m challenged to push my limits and encouraged to go further. Without a doubt, this is the best part, always being challenged”, she summarizes.

Another point she highlights is the combination of her love for technology and her affection for children. “Today, I have the combination of these two things in my hands: I teach technology classes to children! I like teaching, withheld knowledge has no effect, I usually say that no one is so foolish that they cannot teach and no one is so wise that they cannot sit down to learn. I feel good”, she points out.

Do your part

Just like Jeniffer, another two million people from 11 cities in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region have already had their lives transformed by Ramacrisna’s projects. In total, there are more than six decades of history offering opportunities to people in social vulnerability.

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