NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Four Bahamian participants from the 2021 Blockchain Business School (BBS), ages 13 to their late 20s, are earning their developer’s certificates to become blockchain developers.
Engagement in an intense 11-week blockchain boot camp offered by world-renowned ConsenSys Academy exposed this cohort to powerful industry knowledge and hands-on instruction to test their projects on Ethereum.
Rhonda McDeigan-Eldridge, founder and curator of Harness All Possibilities (HAP) and BBS, was proud of these learners who were among more than 1,400 global novices.
Rashan Smith and Jonnell Emmanuel of New Providence are two women under the age of 30 who were sponsored by E&Y Bahamas. Teens Rodgeno Albury, 17, and Phelton Petit, 13, were recommended by mentor Ryan Austin of BYTE Bahamas, focused on STEM programs.
Global cross-generational BBS students included Layla Abdulla, a programmer in Egypt; Kathryn Corkish, a high school student in the Cayman Islands; Michael Saunders, a high school student from Turks & Caicos; and Daval Gregory, a software engineer in the Cayman Islands.
Live weekly interactive presentations by top blockchain leaders, a Discord (social media) community, and support from champion mentors helped these learners sharpen their soft and hard skills and expand their knowledge.
Over 40 Blockchain firms provided insights on their protocols and opportunities for internships, projects, research, analysts and remote work.
Equal to one semester of a science course, the learn2earn experience was facilitated by HAP in partnership with ConsenSys Academy. A robust business, technology and developer community allowed participants to learn fundamental Ethereum concepts, key tools, security best practices and smart contract/dApp development.
Mentor Ryan Austin shared: “Rodgeno utilized JavaScript, which he had learned at the summer program, to build a time lock wallet. He further incorporated that knowledge into this boot camp by building and testing his smart contract in the Truffle development environment before placing it on the Ethereum testnet blockchain.
“Neither he nor Phelton understood how to do this just a few months ago. So, this means that we have young Bahamians being exposed to and working in the emerging field of blockchain development.”
In early February 2022, Albury received his Ethereum Developer’s Certificate. He graduated from North Eleuthera High School in 2021 and will continue practicing his skills and looking for work in the blockchain space.
Smith recently earned her Ethereum Developer’s Certificate as well. She had also mentored learners in coding and worked with developing BBS’s website. She is a cloud-native application developer and was part of the inaugural 2019 Youth Blockchain Hackathon and Conference held in New Providence.
Emmanuel is an air traffic controller and web developer who became interested in Blockchain so that she can develop secure applications.
McDeigan-Eldridge acknowledged the curiosity and persistence of Petit as the youngest in the cohort that she believes is making history in The Bahamas, and that Albury tapped into some of his key soft skills and competencies — skills sought after in the 21st Century workforce and Web3. Furthermore, she applauded Smith and Emmanuel, two women in the tech field, as well as the other global learners who participated in this cohort.
Learn more about BBS at www.242bbs.com.
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