Mentor sees coding, technology as pathway out of poverty
15 people to watch in 2016
The cafeteria of a Des Moines church is not a normal setting for a computer coding class.
There is no computer lab. The Wi-Fi is spotty at times. And the laptops are donated or bought with donations.
Even so, students in Nancy Mwirotsi's Pi 515 program plug away at making websites, building video games or learning a coding language like Java.
Throughout the week, Mwirotsi's classes bring students together — mainly from Des Moines' refugee community — to learn how to create something. Mwirotsi's goal is to give the students a pathway to a better future, perhaps through a well-paying job in the tech industry.
"The reality is this: There’s a lot of jobs coming up, and there’s the need to fill that gap," she said. "Why not just get them ready for it now, and get them excited about it now?"
Mwirotsi is heading into her third year of Pi 515, the small nonprofit she runs out of Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church. Now, she wants to expand to include more of Des Moines' low-income children.
She sees her students' potential, but also their limited opportunities, unless someone shows them how to open doors.
"I do think we’re at a crisis when it comes to kids in this city and poverty. … The best way to (help) is to equip them early with a skill, so they can shoot for something else," she said.
Pi 515 covers a cross-section of Mwirotsi's passions: helping Des Moines' refugee and minority populations, fostering more diversity in the technology workforce and encouraging girls to get involved in the industry.
Mwirotsi wants to expand a curriculum to include robotics, lessons in entrepreneurship and showcases for student projects.
Originally from Kenya, Mwirotsi came to Iowa in 1997. Before founding Pi 515, she worked in real estate, studied at Des Moines Area Community College for a bit and began helping the city's refugee community.
Fledgling program brings tech skills to refugee kids
As Mwirotsi continues to build Pi 515, she has recruited others to her side.
Phillipe Kipendo, a 25-year-old studying network administration at DMACC, has signed on recently to start teaching kids robotics.
"My thought was, if I can help Nancy and improve those kids' lives and give them choices, it would be beneficial for them," said Kipendo, whose family came to the U.S. from Congo a few years ago. "They can know what to do, and they can have a better job in the future."
Mwirotsi said Pi 515 plans to bring on other volunteers to help with curriculum development. The program had about 70 participating students this year, but Mwirotsi is recruiting more, going door to door to connect with children and parents.
If she had $1 million
Pi 515 is strapped for cash, Mwirotsi will admit.
"FYI, we don’t have money, but we’ve made it," she said.
That hasn't weakened her resolve to grow the program. She wants Pi 515 to evolve beyond the spaces Zion provides into its own dedicated, tech-focused center.
"Ask me if I had a million dollars what I would do? … I would have a space, my own space, and it would be very open," she said.
The space, she said, would offer a place of calm, where children's creativity could flow.
"I do think a lot of kids have lost a lot of hope, because everything is chaotic around them. When you don’t have money, everything, even your home, is chaotic," Mwirotsi said. "We have to build a place that is a safe haven for them so that they can come and that they’re open to think."
Here for the 'long haul'
Mwirotsi knows getting to the future she envisions isn't a sprint; it's a marathon, and a slow one.
"I do think we’ll get there. In the next 10 years, we’ll walk our way to there, where we have this space where they can come and they can feel welcome and just do anything they want to be," she said. "I don’t want to limit what I see. I see that hunger. They want to do something, just nobody's been there to tell them, 'You can do this.'"
The Rev. John Kline, lead pastor at Zion, said Mwirotsi has built relationships with the kids she is teaching.
"She’s here for the long haul," he said.
While Zion has supported Pi 515, Kline said the church would be happy if Mwirotsi can establish an expanded presence elsewhere.
"To love somebody is not to own them. ... We’re here to love and encourage and support her," he said. "If she outgrows us, isn’t that a victory?"
Nancy Mwirotsi
Age: 38
Lives: In Des Moines
Education: Has taken classes at Des Moines Area Community College
Career: Between 1998 and 2012 — after leaving Kenya and moving to Iowa — Mwirotsi worked at a variety of companies, including as a Realtor. She works with Des Moines' refugee community and volunteers. She founded Pi 515 in 2014.
Family: Daughter Riziki, 12.
Twitter: @LOVEPI515
Website: www.pi515.com/
15 PEOPLE TO WATCH IN 2016: ABOUT THE SERIES
These are central Iowans in business, arts, nonprofits, civic activism and nonelected government positions who are expected to make a difference in their fields of endeavor in 2016. Readers were invited to submit nominations. Selections were made by Des Moines Register editors and reporters. Look for profiles daily through early January.
EARLIER PROFILES: With this story at DesMoinesRegister.com/PeopletoWatch, see profiles of Jodie Warth, chief executive officer of the Boys & Girls Club of Central Iowa; Rob Sand, a prosecutor in the area prosecutions division of the Iowa attorney general’s office; David Rezek, who directs and arranges music for the Des Moines Big Band; Joshua Barr, new director of civil and human rights for the city of Des Moines; Jennie Baranczyk, coach of the Drake Bulldogs; and profiles of people selected to be part of the series in prior years.
COMING SATURDAY: Sue Hoss, who's changing the lives of disabled people through cooking.