Natnael Tafesse

A2SV - Africa to Silicon Valley is a nonprofit social enterprise that enables talented young software engineers to create digital solutions to Africa’s most pressing problems. We upskill high-potential university students, connect them with internship interviews at the world’s top tech companies, and enable them to create digital solutions to urgent problems in their home countries. The program is free for students, making the opportunity available for youth with talent but lack the means to use it. A2SV’s rigorous training program prepares students for internships with companies like Google, Palantir, and Coinbase. The internships give students the experience they need to design and build products that improve the quality of life in Africa. The first group of A2SV students achieved a 54% (12/22) success rate at Google internship interviews for summer 2021. Our training is conducted in three phases: Phase 1: Students go through a series of lectures and practice sessions on algorithms and data structures after school hours. This phase includes weekly contests, Q&As, bi-weekly 1:1s, and other technical programs. Phase 2: Students go through a 3-week boot camp, six days a week, all day. On top of phase 1 programs, phase 2 also has communication skills improvements, social activities, moonwalks, and mock interviews. At the end of Phase 2, students have internship interviews with top tech companies. Phase 3: Students and experienced mentors form development teams. Together we solve a real-world problem by creating a scalable product with a social mission to improve the quality of life in Africa. Unlike any other programming academy, we permanently incorporate students’ ventures under the organization's umbrella, going beyond training to deliver concrete impact. Offering students an ecosystem to actualize their ideas means that up-and-coming developers use their skills to benefit Africa rather than taking their talent elsewhere.