Alumna Spotlight: Sonia Rugwiro

Sonia Rugwiro graduated from Akilah’s Information Systems program in November 2017. In December, she took on her new role as a software engineer at MeshPower, a solar energy company based in Kigali.

A few months before Sonia graduated from Akilah, she attended Akilah’s annual career fair, where dozens of employers come to campus to meet with upcoming graduates. Sonia had never heard of MeshPower, but she was immediately drawn to their mission of designing and implementing solar energy solutions in rural communities across Rwanda.

A few months and several follow-up meetings later, Sonia was ready to start her one-month internship at MeshPower. The internship quickly led to a full-time position as a software engineer.

We talked to Sonia about the transition from student to professional, about ambition and persistence — and about being a woman in a male-dominated field.

“I made it my goal to work at Mesh Power. I could see how it would challenge me, and I love challenges. I had three other job offers on hand. Some of them offered more money, but their job descriptions were not challenging. I needed something where I could see an impact, something other people would benefit from. I turned down the other jobs and went for the internship at Mesh Power. It was a hard decision, but I am really happy I took the chance,” Sonia explains.

“I really wanted to learn more, that’s why I took this job. Learning doesn’t stop when you graduate. It’s a very big change to go from being a student to working. Technically, I knew certain programming languages from class but not all of them. But I knew I could learn them.”

Sonia joined a young and ambitious engineering team — as the youngest member and the only woman on the team. Not only did she need to learn a lot of new technical skills — she also needed to prove to herself and the rest of the team that she was up for the job.

“When I started working, it was a lot. In the beginning, when I came to work, it felt like starting from scratch every morning. At the end of the day, people need results from you. It’s not enough to just show them that you were able to learn something new, you need to deliver. I had to learn and produce results at the same time,” Sonia explains.

For Sonia, studying Information Systems at Akilah opened the doors to her career in software engineering. While the technical skills in programming and coding landed her the job in the first place, the leadership skills she got from Akilah are just as important in her daily work.

“The leadership classes at Akilah shaped me into who I am today. Without that, I don’t think I would have made it here. Leadership is what taught me to take initiative and keep pushing for the things I want to accomplish. It has given me a mindset to keep going when things are hard. If I ever thought about giving up, I would think, ‘This is not what Akilah taught me,’ and I would keep going.”

“The technical skills from Information Systems made me able to do the job, and the leadership skills made me able to stay in it,” she adds.

Being the only woman on the engineering team raised a few eyebrows among her co-workers in the beginning, but today her team treats Sonia as one of their own.

“At first, my team members kept asking me if I was really sure I wanted to be a software engineer. ‘Yes, I do! Why do you ask?’ I would always say. Today, they know that I am not afraid of taking risks and trying new things, and they even sometimes come to me for advice — just as I come to them.”

The team’s support and an environment of constant learning keep Sonia on her toes.

“At the end of the day, it’s so satisfying when you’ve produced something. Even if it’s just something small, you’ve learned a lot to accomplish it. That’s what I love about my job. When I’m stuck, I can ask the team for help. Whenever I ask for help and that person also needs to search for it, it shows me that no one knows everything in technology. People that I look up to also sometimes ask for help,” Sonia says.

“It’s a good reminder to me that I often know more than I think I do. A reminder to be confident,” she adds.

As a young woman in a field with very low female representation, it is important to Sonia to lead the way for other girls and women wanting to join the tech field.

“I feel like what I am doing is important for the reputation I’m creating more broadly. I try to create a path to show that women can do this. It’s still new to see girls and women in this field. What I do will affect how our society perceives women in tech. It’s a big responsibility. It makes you work extra hard.”

To other girls and women interested in joining technology, Sonia’s advice is straightforward.

“You can’t just study tech because you want a degree in it. You need to love it to pursue it. Once you get into it, you will keep learning new things every day. That’s the beauty of it. You are constantly upgrading yourself,” Sonia says.

“In Rwanda, we may still lag behind compared to other [countries], but the future is all about tech. As a woman, if you join the field now, that’s a plus for you. Rwanda is trying to empower more women to join tech. Those of us who are already here have a special obligation to take the lead. We need to keep pushing even though it’s not always easy,” she adds.

“But when you love what you do, the satisfaction you’re getting from your job, and the feedback you get from your team makes it all worth it. To my colleagues, I am not just a young woman in the office. I am a software engineer. I am their equal.”