Kenyan refugee to web developer: The path of Ali Osman
Ali Osman, 19, is proof that you never know another person’s background until you start asking questions. If I was sitting in the eight-week Tech Talent South Code Immersion Program with him at Packard Place, I’d be too busy struggling through the intricacies of web design fundamentals to pick up on the fact that (1) Osman is the recipient of the program’s Skookum Scholarship and (2) he is a Kenyan refugee.
He doesn’t keep his refugee status a secret, by the way. His family arrived in Charlotte in 2004, when Osman was 8 years old and the city was frozen under a (rare) February snowstorm.
“My parents were wanting me to get a really good education because they never got a good education from Kenya,” Osman said, “and to get away from everything that was happening in Kenya – all the wars and fights.”
A Myers Park High School graduate, Osman took a year of courses at Central Piedmont Community College before deciding to take Tech Talent South’s Code Immersion Program. Osman is taking the semester off to study web development, with the plan to resume his education by transferring to UNC Charlotte, which offers a computer science degree.
Osman said his only real barrier in Charlotte has been a language difference, since he grew up speaking a Kenyan dialect with his family of 10. Luckily, a local refugee support service connected him with a few adult “friends” who have helped him with reading, writing and speaking English as he has grown up.
Even now, he said, “I’m trying to learn new words. I’m trying to learn more vocabulary words.”
Not to mention the language of computers — the Tech Talent South program emphasizes front-end and back-end web languages. Osman is up for the challenge.
“When you’re curious and love technology, you will never stop learning,” he said.
He is on the path to becoming a web developer and he’s not afraid to deal with a few failures along the way.
“It’s good to fail,” he said. “When you fail, you learn more.”
He can be found studying and tapping away on his MacBook Pro at Barnes & Noble in SouthPark, and kicking around a soccer ball at Sports Connection and the Harris YMCA.
Still, his free time generally means computer time.
“I like to stay up to date with everything that is going on in the world,” he said.
About two years ago, Osman’s mother studied hard to take the test that would give her children American citizenship.
“She is an awesome mom,” he said. “I feel like I grew up as a Charlotte person.”
Photos by Katie Toussaint, Christy Townsend / Charlotte Observer
This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 10:16 PM with the headline "Kenyan refugee to web developer: The path of Ali Osman."