Woz U

In July 2017, Woz U partnered with Cuttington University to bring tech education to students in Liberia, West Africa. This past November, Cuttington University powered by Woz U graduated its first cohort of Full Stack Software Developer students!

John Bernard, Director of International Business Development at Woz U, drove the creation of this partnership. Originally from Liberia, John wanted to give back and found the perfect opportunity to do so at Woz U. On top of giving back to Liberia, JB has a desire for Woz U to have a positive global impact.

“I am originally from Liberia, West Africa and I have always wanted an opportunity to give back to Liberia. When the decision was made to explore international partnerships, I started talking to colleges and universities across West Africa. I met the president of Cuttington, Dr. Herman Browne in Washington DC in early 2017, and the rest of the story is still being written.” – John Bernard

 

While John traveled back and fourth between the US and West Africa to make this deal possible, another team member, Mr. Kenyada Ijiwoye, simply bought a one way ticket to Liberia from Phoenix. Also known as Ken, Mr. Kenyada moved from Phoenix to Liberia to teach this course. Ken was a recent Woz U graduate with previous experience in software development when the international instructor position opened up. After applying to teach abroad, the Woz U team was quick to select him and start training coders across the globe.

 

Fast forward to November 2018 and we now see the first round of graduates from Cuttington University powered by Woz U.
Their program was six months long and consisted of 4 hours of in-class instruction 5 days a week.
For their final project, they built a portal that automates the entrance examination process for candidates applying to Cuttington University at the request of the President of the University.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Upon graduation, the University is hiring three of the graduates to continue this project while two more have been accepted as interns at a local software developer company.
Cuttington University is set to start a new cohort of Software Developer students on November 26th and is excited to continue this partnership with Woz U in 2019.
With the goal of expanding Woz U’s international impact, John Bernard has also began partnerships with K-12 schools and Universities in Nigeria.

View the video below to meet the first cohort of students and learn more about Cuttington University powered by Woz U!