Reflections on Skyping with Sharon

Sharon Adongo (above) Skyped with the PFA Team from Nairobi, Kenya

Reflections by the Pencils for Africa Team after the Skype call with

Sharon Adongo, Member of the Pencils for Africa Advisory Board

I loved Skyping with Sharon Adongo and learning about her life and achievements.

One of my favorite things she talked about was how influential her mother was and how she pushed her to do what she wanted.

One of my favorite things Sharon talked about was how influential her mother was. I was very touched when she talked about how her mother encouraged and supported her.

I was very touched when she talked about how she encouraged and supported her. Sharon said that her mother was one of the people to help her find a college in the United States.

Another thing that I thought was interesting was when Sharon told us about people’s narrative of Africa. She said that Africa was a life of opportunity and the bad thoughts about it were mostly from bad media. I was very inspired by Sharon and love what she is doing with her life.

— Charlotte

Sharon Adongo is a notably inspiring woman who is making a difference in our world today.

When Sharon popped up on the TV screen in the 5th grade classroom, I quickly took note of two things visually.

1. She had vibrant colors on (a really pretty pink comes to mind)

2. It was quite dark outside.

In hindsight, I am impressed and grateful that she was so present to us at midnight!

Sharon is a very confident woman.

I would like to thank Sharon for her amazing voice.

Sharon motivates me to make a mark on the world as an individual. Sharon meant it when she explained that she is motivated to leave the earth better than she found it.

I love interacting with people like her because they often make me more confident allowing me to open up with questions that I really want answered. I loved when Sharon was talking about her mother and how she influenced Sharon to become the strong woman she is today, encouraging her in ways that included going to Vassar collage in New York. I knew that Sharon meant it when she explained that she is motivated to leave the earth better than she found it.

Working for a non profit that helps other non profits is actually really selfless if you think about it. People like Sharon motivate me to make a mark on the world as an individual.

I would like to thank Sharon for her amazing voice.

She has given the PFA group more reason to stay driven and focused on what we believe in.

— Lucia

While talking with Sharon, she described Africa as a life of opportunity.

People like her are helping to change the narrative to a more sustainable and positive future for Africa. Throughout Sharon’s life, she was given opportunities she had never dreamed of before, such as the opportunity to get a good education.

Sharon taught me that if you work hard, nothing is impossible in life.

Sharon is such a great role model for me. Sharon taught me that if you work hard, nothing is impossible in life.

I can’t wait to talk with her again about Portfolio PFA and the Pen Pal project with Akili Dada.

Also, Sharon shared that her motivation in life is to leave the Earth better than she found it.

This is a motivation everyone should live by and it inspires me to do my best everyday.

Sharon is such a great role model for me and I can’t wait to talk with her again about Portfolio PFA and the Pen Pal project with Akili Dada.

— Carly

Sharon Adongo led a very pleasant life growing up in Kenya.

She had a loving family, a comfortable home, and a good education. By high school, Sharon had a mentor she looked up to, and with the support of her mother, a promising future career in the medical field. Sharon’s mother pushed her to be the first female in her family to pursue education through college, and specifically, a college in the United States.

Sharon took her mother’s advice and chose Vassar College to study medicine. While at Vassar, it was mandatory for Sharon to take a class not related to her major. She enrolled in a computer science class, fell in love with the subject, and altered her entire career to study technology.

Sharon is now co-founder of an organization that helps non-profits with their technological needs, and has a dream to leave the world better than she left it. This aspiration is without a doubt a tall order, but after meeting Sharon, I believe she will absolutely make the world a better place.

— Ella

Sharon had lots of interesting things to share with the PFA team.

It was great to learn more about Africa. Africa has lots of potential because it’s still very fresh and not yet impacted by lots of technology and has lots of potential for innovation.

This innovation can help Africa and can possibly help change the world, it’s a place filled with opportunity. Simple, creative tech such as our iPhones and iPads can have a big impact on what we can do for the future. Sharon talked about her early life, and it made me think about how lucky I am with so much access to common things that she didn’t have.

Sharon had a very supportive mother and I think the people who care for you early in life are the ones that shape you into who you are and will be. In her youth, Sharon didn’t have very much accessibility to technology so communication was hard. I realized how grateful I should be to have what I have. College is a very important point in our lives and gives us the tools we need to face the world, and shows us challenges that we may need to overcome.

College is the point where we choose how we want to live and what we want to do, good or bad.

Some advice that Sharon gave, was to do good things in the life we have now, so that when we depart, the world would be changed for the better.

— Josh

I think that Sharon is a very nice person, she gave us a lot of her own time to Skype and answer our questions late at night, Kenya time. Sharon was spontaneous at answering our questions.

I really appreciated her interest in the PFA team, I learned a lot and have a lot of respect for her.

I really liked that even though she had made good choices through her life, she had difficulty with things such as languages and geography.

That showed me that I don’t have to be good at everything to be a good person.

— Cole

Sharon went to the collage, Vassar, in Poughkeepsie, New York.

For the first two years she went there, she had no idea what she wanted to major in finding out that she was most interested in technology.

Sharon said that technology in Africa is changing the world.

I believe, that she really believes that together, with a good education the people in Africa can change the world for the better. What I really took away from our Skype interview was that, although now we may be isolated from what’s happening there, in Africa, we can do small things for them, and it will make a very big difference on the world.

I felt that Sharon will definitely make the world a better place than it is today.

— Aidan

With my experience on Thursday, I did not learn anything new but I felt like I dug deeper into the African struggles and culture. My question to Sharon was:

“How, in your opinion, is life for children today different from when you were a child in Africa.”

If I could summarize her answer in one sentence it was: “Technology makes everything easier.”

I can compare that to my Mom and Dad. When they were kids there was no social media or 1,000 channel subscriptions. There was no touch screen or color film till they were older.

Same with Sharon. When she was a kid technology for the most part had not made it to Africa. Now, families in Africa have phones and can communicate with each other. Textbooks are easier to get and pencils the same. There is no way of showing us what is fully going on in rural Africa but we can at least try to understand their lives better because of technology.

— Kyle

When we interviewed Sharon Adongo on Thursday, I learned a lot about her.

One thing that I loved she said was that her mother inspired her and supported to reach her dreams. This is a very important bond to have where there is someone who can be your hero and look up to while being there to support you.

Another thing Sharon said which is very important about the U.S and a lot of other countries was the fact that people are influenced by the negative media exposure which has created stereotypes about Africa. One of the positive notes that Sharon discussed was that she felt there will be a lot of innovators coming out of Africa in the future. This should be good because this could change the narrative and the negative stereotypes about Africa today.

— James