With a passion to learn 17-year-old Nji Collins Gbah read books and used online resources to himself how to code. He was fascinated with the topic and worked diligently for two years trying to learn as much as he could. Then he decided to enter himself into Google Code-in competition.

Google code-in was developed for students ages 13-17. They challenged with specific coding/software development task and upon successful completion they move to the next level of competition.

Despite the intense political climate in his country, Cameroon, he successfully completed all five categories set by Google. After completion of his task the government then shut off everyone’s internet access but Nji still manage to receive great news from Google informing him that he was chosen as one of the 34 grand prize winners for Google Code-in competition.

“I was really, really amazed,” he says. “It meant my hard work writing a lot of code had really paid off.”

Congratulations, Nji!