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Mercy Tum is always looking for ways to help others. When she’s not busy with her College of Engineering and Computer Science graduate classes, she volunteers at the ������-Dearborn Student Food Pantry and helps bag up food for students in need. And, on Saturdays, she teaches a free online software developing and coding class to people in Kenya.

The Fulbright Scholar from Kenya says both activities are a priority to her because she once was a person in need — and the help she received got her to a place where she is able to help others. “When I first moved to Michigan, the student food pantry put food on my table,” she says. “I am now there every week volunteering because I want to show how much I appreciate what they’ve done for me.”

Tum, who is earning a Master of Science in software engineering at ������-Dearborn, says the right support can take you to incredible places. And with her degree, she plans to create more educational opportunities in Kenya for emerging software engineers.

 This idea was born from personal experience. At the beginning of the pandemic, Tum found herself unemployed and wondering what to do next. Then one person changed everything for her at an International Women’s Day Conference career-seeking event. A woman representing Microsoft Leap gave Tum a business card about a 16-week technical training. Microsoft Leap was looking for 10 women to take part in the competitive program, which also provided a laptop and paid an internet stipend.

“She told me they wanted to bring more women into the coding space. There is a large gender gap in employment in my country — especially in the tech space. Within four months, I had an apprenticeship at Microsoft. By the time I finished that in 2021, Microsoft was hiring more developers,” says Tum, who worked as a software engineer at Microsoft in Kenya until she came to ������-Dearborn to study through her Fulbright award “The stars aligned.” According to a recent on employment disparities in Kenya, 60% of women are employed versus 70% of men. The pay gap is up to 31%.

Tum, who has an academic background in telecommunications from Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, says she had some experience in coding, but needed more training to be proficient. She sees coding as a potential solution to some of Kenya’s infrastructure concerns like utility management. “They don’t let you pick your own classes in Kenya like they do in the U.S. Once I chose telecommunications, I needed to stay on that path. But I kept noticing needs that coding could help with,” she says. “There are places with limited water access and regular power outages. Updating infrastructure and better automating it would be very beneficial. I want to be a person who helps solve such problems with technology and help strengthen Africa.”

After Tum landed the job at Microsoft, people in Tum’s inner circle, like her younger sister and cousins, began showing an interest in coding. But with formal education becoming increasingly out of reach for people — Tum says the merit-based educational opportunities in Kenya are being replaced by expensive tuition-based ones starting as early as primary school — she looked for alternative ways to teach those skills.

Tum became a volunteer for , a nonprofit organization that teaches digital and soft skills in an effort to promote more equitable employment in technology fields. Tum is also in the process of creating her own online coding skills program. She gets up early every Saturday morning — 8 a.m. in Dearborn is 4 p.m. East Africa Time — and logs on to teach in Kenya. 

“I want to blend software engineering and education so that I can create a viable, free program — free if you complete it — that people can access and use to increase their coding proficiency with the goal of strengthening Kenya’s workforce,” she says. “From a global perspective, there is no better place to learn how to do this than the United States. Many important technology companies are based here and American universities are known for their high standards. Working at an international company, I have met people with degrees from the U.S. The degree is highly respected. I want to make sure that the program I create has that type of integrity.”

Tum says the above qualities — industry connections and respected programs — are why ������-Dearborn caught her interest when looking for schools through the Fulbright Scholars program. Student reviews also shared it was a smaller, welcoming university. “To me, this meant the student-to-teacher ratio would be a good fit for my needs. I didn’t want to be a face in a crowd. I have seen what help and support can do,” she says. “I wanted to go to a university that provided a great education, while also caring about what the students need.”

Tum, who is active in ������-Dearborn student organizations like the and , says she misses her family and friends in Kenya, but she’s made wonderful connections at ������-Dearborn. “From day one, I felt welcomed here. It is hard, but it gets better when you have people who care about you. Emily Wang in the Office of International Affairs is one of those people,” she says. “She is always looking out for me and invited me to her home for Thanksgiving. I had eggnog and pumpkin pie for the first time. So delicious — I recommend both.”

Tum also attended the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Chinese New Year parties on campus and Detroit’s Campus Martius Park’s tree lighting with Wang and ������-Dearborn friends. She’s currently working with ������-Dearborn’s Career Services staff to find a summer internship so she can get U.S.-based job experience — all on top of her software engineering studies, volunteering and teaching.

“Giving something that seems small leads to greater things. If I didn’t get that business card, the merit-based scholarships for my education or the support from people at ������-Dearborn, my life would look different. All these things are adding up and have led to where I am today. I have this opportunity to do something big,” Tum says. “We all can make the world a better place. I am taking what others have given me to create a system where people can learn technical skills to help them grow their abilities, confidence, careers and communities.”

 Story by Sarah Tuxbury