![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Nicole-Muthoni-300x300.jpg\")
In this part of Kenya, computers are hard to come by, and those that do arrive are often older or refurbished, close to the end of their usable life and far from cutting edge. When newer technologies are brought to the community, the lack of infrastructure to support them quickly becomes apparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of Western companies are bringing computer technology to schools in Kenya, which is amazing,\u201d says Muthoni. \u201cBut then they forget that there is this infrastructure deficit in the rural communities. They can house computers, but they won’t have access to Wi-Fi, or they won’t have access to power, so these computers are rendered useless.\u201d<\/p>\n
This lack of accessibility for the young students at Pleasant View School means that they often struggle to keep up with an increasingly digital world. When the coronavirus pandemic began to spread across the globe in 2020, schools in Githunguri were not immune to the disruption of regular in-person classroom learning \u2013 but the community\u2019s infrastructure deficit made virtual learning virtually impossible.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring COVID, one year was lost,\u201d says Muthoni, \u201cbecause the majority of the students were not able to engage with virtual learning due to the lack of technology, and even due to the lack of network systems, especially in rural Kenya.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the midst of the pandemic as well, and half a world away, Muthoni \u2013 like so many students in Western countries \u2013 had also found herself struggling with virtual learning, albeit in ways far different from her family in Kenya. In search of a university with stronger research opportunities, she had just transferred to UConn in the fall of 2020 as a sophomore to study psychology when the logistics of learning changed dramatically.<\/p>\n
The daughter of a scholar, she was committed to becoming a scholar herself and wanted to focus on infant and child research. It wasn\u2019t an easy time, she says, but as she worked with support systems and mentors at UConn to overcome her own pandemic learning challenges, the challenges she knew her young cousins were facing in her home country became the impetus of an idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember talking to a professor and telling him about some of the pains that were going on during the time of online learning and how some students in Kenya were really falling behind, and my professor was trying to see if he could have a paper on this one year that students learned virtually and how it affected learning outcomes in students,\u201d she says. \u201cThat’s the time I thought about starting PazaTech.”<\/p>\n
In Swahili, the word \u201cpaza\u201d means \u201camplify,\u201d and it\u2019s not just the namesake of the startup nonprofit organization that Muthoni co-founded as an undergraduate at UConn. It\u2019s also the organization\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cPazaTech\u2019s main aim is the amplification and the usability of technology in rural Kenya, especially in underserved communities — our main aim is to generally create a pipeline of young tech-savvy learners who are able to engage with technology, are competent for the digital world, and are prepared for the future of work,\u201d Muthoni explains, and she has developed an ambitious agenda toward accomplishing that goal.<\/p>\n
PazaTech is working to bring edge computing technology into schools in rural Kenya, relying on gamified learning systems and developing optimized curriculum to enhance literacy and numeracy skills in elementary-age students.<\/p>\n