Over Coffee® is on Thanksgiving-week hiatus. Please enjoy this reposting of one of our top episodes of 2024!

XR Girls Africa Founder Diana Njeri is passionate about building a better future.

Her implements? Education, leadership–and virtual reality.

Diana, who is the Associate Director of Africa VR Campus and Center, works with Founder/CEO Paul Simon Waiyaki, through virtual reality. to teach career, tech and entrepreneurial skills to young women from underserved areas in Africa. Her students are the first African girls in the metaverse!

“Some people told (the girls) that they would never go anywhere, because of where they come from,” Diana says of her students.

“I keep telling them, ‘hey, look, those words meant nothing. Now you’re doing great things,” she continues.

Among those great things: winning a first-place Social Impact award in the Girls’ STEAM Institute competition in 2023; launching their own podcast and hosting regular metaverse meetups, in both ENGAGE and Banter; meeting with major decision makers in XR to pitch their entrepreneurial ideas; AND sharing their new technological skills by teaching other students in the metaverse!

Look for even greater things from XR Girls Africa in 2025–and beyond.

On this edition of Over Coffee®we cover:

• How Diana’s background led her to become a leader and an educator;

• How her interest in VR led her to become an Associate Director at Africa VR Campus and Center;

• What she remembers best, about her own first experience with virtual reality;

• What led her to begin using virtual reality to support girls in building their futures through education and entrepreneurship;

• The story of XR Girls Africa;

• Diana’s recollections of their first meeting;

• How a desire to solve a problem facing many young African girls led XR Girls Africa to an exciting triumph;

• What’s next for this particular project;

• Tech skills which the girls are learning;

• Some of their current additional business ventures;

• Additional areas in which XR Girls Africa needs support as the organization grows;

• Specific types of mentors they especially need;

• Diana’s vision for the future.