Sinclair Nzenwata · Ball State University

Scholarship proposal

Access
to Build.

I learned to code on a phone, pushed through limited internet, and crossed continents to study computer science at Ball State. That global education showed me what builders can do with the right tools — and who gets left behind without them. This is my scholarship to close that gap for young builders in Nigeria.

“I was not separated by talent. I was separated by access.”
Scholarship infoRecommendation letter

Trajectory markers

Ball State GPA

4.0

Computer Science, minor in Computer Technology

Current Role

Digital Corps

Software Engineer building faculty web and mobile products

Builder Role

Co-Founder

Naahia, a student-focused marketplace platform

Competition

XTERN Finalist

Second-place team placement in Cummins' 2026 challenge

Shipped Product

WillItRain

Published weather forecasting app built during NASA Space Apps Hackathon

Chapter 01

I started learning to program on a phone before I ever owned a computer.

I grew up with more curiosity than infrastructure. I kept asking one question over and over: how are websites made?

That question pulled me into programming, but the first version of my learning environment was not a desk setup. It was my phone. I read, watched, and practiced there because that was the access I had.

The curiosity came first. The hardware came later.

Story artifactPersonal visual
Learning on a phone

This was me learning to code on a phone

Chapter 02

The challenge was never whether I could learn. It was whether I could reach the tools.

I did not have enough money to get a computer. I also could not freely leave the house to find one somewhere else. Even when I pushed forward, poor internet access slowed everything down and cut my learning speed in half.

It became obvious to me that I was not lagging because of ability. I was lagging because access was rationed.

Lack of access can look like lack of talent from the outside.

Story artifactPersonal visual
Sinclair thinking about how to get a computer

This was me — trying to figure out how to get a computer so I could actually build.

Chapter 03

When my father saw the determination, he bought me a Dell Latitude. Everything accelerated.

That laptop was more than a device. It was proof that persistence can move people around you. Once I had a machine of my own, I started improving fast, building websites, learning deeper concepts, and testing what I could make with my own hands.

Access did not create my drive. It unlocked the full expression of it.

The turning point was not motivation. It was a machine, a signal, and room to build.

Story artifactPersonal visual
The Dell Latitude turning point

This was me trying to remake fiverr

Chapter 04

Studying in the United States was my way of catching up with the version of myself that access had delayed.

During college in Nigeria, the internet bottleneck was still there. I knew I needed a different environment if I wanted to compete at the level I believed I could reach. After convincing my father and negotiating for the chance, I studied abroad.

That decision changed my trajectory. At Ball State, I became stronger at building, joined serious teams, won competitions, worked across web, mobile, data, and AI, and started preparing to launch a startup that serves students and communities back home.

Global education did not change my ambition. It gave me a vision of what I could build.

Story artifactPersonal visual
A path from Nigeria to the United States

This was me displaying a project built in VR at Ball State.

Ball State GPA

4.0

Computer Science, minor in Computer Technology

Current Role

Digital Corps

Software Engineer building faculty web and mobile products

Builder Role

Co-Founder

Naahia, a student-focused marketplace platform

Competition

XTERN Finalist

Second-place team placement in Cummins' 2026 challenge

Shipped Product

WillItRain

Published weather forecasting app built during NASA Space Apps Hackathon

Proof of trajectory

The argument only works if the work is real.

These are the public markers I can point to today: academic performance, shipped products, startup work, research, and competition results. They are the bridge between my story and the scholarship I am proposing.

Software Engineer, Ball State Digital Corps placeholder visual
Current roleexperience

Software Engineer, Ball State Digital Corps

Collaborating with designers, videographers, developers, and project managers to ship web and mobile applications for faculty using React, TypeScript, MySQL, and Duo SSO.

Open source link
Co-Founder and Software Engineer, Naahia placeholder visual
Startup buildingstartup

Co-Founder and Software Engineer, Naahia

Building a marketplace platform for buying, selling, and services within university communities, with a React Native app, AdonisJS services, CI/CD, Docker, and app store deployment pipelines.

Open source link
Second-place team in the 2026 Cummins XTERN Challenge placeholder visual
Public awardcompetitionMarch 2026

Second-place team in the 2026 Cummins XTERN Challenge

A public competition result that supports the story of technical growth, collaboration, and execution under pressure.

Open source link
WillItRain mobile app placeholder visual
Published productproduct

WillItRain mobile app

A published weather forecasting app built during the NASA International Space Apps Hackathon using React Native, NASA POWER API, and Python.

Open source link
Healthpal project listing placeholder visual
AI systems workproject

Healthpal project listing

A public listing tied to an AI developer competition that supports the story of cross-disciplinary product building.

Open source link
Undergraduate Data Science Researcher, Purdue's The Data Mine placeholder visual
Academic researchdatamine

Undergraduate Data Science Researcher, Purdue's The Data Mine

Contributed to the Ball State Energy Dashboard for forecasting and analyzing campus energy data, tying product engineering to sustainability work.

Open source link

The access gap in numbers

The problem is not talent. The problem is infrastructure.

These figures show why access — not ability — is the bottleneck for millions of young Nigerians trying to build.

Rural internet access

23%

Only 23% of rural Nigerian communities have internet access, compared to 57% in urban areas — one of the widest digital gaps in Africa.

Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Oct 2025

Nigerians offline

123M

Out of a population of 226.5 million, approximately 123.4 million Nigerians had no internet access at the start of 2024 — the fourth-largest offline population in the world.

DataReportal, Digital 2024: Nigeria

Above UN affordability target

2×

A basic 2 GB mobile data plan costs 4.2% of gross national income per capita — more than double the UN Broadband Commission's 2% affordability target.

The Borgen Project / ITU Facts and Figures 2024

Broadband penetration

48.8%

Nigeria's broadband penetration sits at roughly 48.8%, well short of the National Broadband Plan's 70% target for 2025.

NCC via ThisDay, Oct 2025

Data usage growth YoY

35%

Internet data consumption surged from 9.76 million TB in 2024 to 13.2 million TB in 2025 — demand is growing fast even as infrastructure lags behind.

NCC via Businessday NG, Jan 2026

NCC infrastructure data

The data shows where access is rationed.

Three views of the same problem — drawn from official Nigerian Communications Commission data — that show why infrastructure, not talent, determines who gets to build.

Internet subscriptions by state

Lagos alone has more internet users than the bottom 8 states combined.

Active internet subscriptions, Q3 2023. The 4 most connected states compared with the 8 least connected.

Internet subscriptions by region

The North-East — where the scholarship targets — has the least access.

Total active internet subscriptions by geopolitical zone, Q3 2023.

Demand is growing — infrastructure is not keeping up

Voice subscriptions outpace internet access by 60+ million.

Monthly active subscriptions, Jun 2020 – Aug 2023. The gap between voice and internet shows how many Nigerians have phones but lack data access.

Source: Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Telecoms Q3 2023 (Telecoms_Q3_2023.xlsx)

Scholarship thesis

I was not separated from these students by talent. I was separated by access. This scholarship is designed for builders who already have the drive but not yet the infrastructure.

Access to Build is not meant for the most polished applicant on paper. It is meant for the young builder who is already trying to ship something useful but is blocked by the same structural limits that once slowed me down.

Structure

Fund the tools. Back the builders. Require something real at the end.

Annual cohort

10

Seed support

$2,000

Success signal

10+

Scholar package

  • A laptop for each scholar
  • An internet stipend that removes the basic connectivity bottleneck
  • Six months of mentorship from diaspora professionals
  • Seed funding for product experimentation and early community rollout
  • A cohort model that creates accountability and peer momentum

Focus areas

Build where infrastructure can change the most outcomes.

Focus 01

Education access and digital literacy

Support builders improving how students discover, access, and retain useful digital learning tools.

The scholarship should help reduce the gap between curiosity and infrastructure for young learners.

Focus 02

Digital entrepreneurship and commerce

Back products that help Nigerians trade, transact, and create new forms of economic opportunity.

The goal is not just ideas. It is useful, tested products that can create momentum for local economies.

Focus 03

Youth employment and skills infrastructure

Fund builders creating tools for job readiness, hiring pathways, and practical workforce coordination.

Infrastructure for skills and work can move young builders from potential to participation.

Eligibility

Prioritize builders who already show motion.

  • Young Nigerians aged 18 to 26
  • Priority for applicants from underserved states, especially the North-East and North-West
  • Applicants must already be actively building and submit an active project or working prototype
  • Applicants must answer the essay question: "What are you building and why does Nigeria need it?"
  • Community impact must be demonstrated or clearly planned

Selection process

  1. 01

    Open application with essay and prototype submission

  2. 02

    Review by a network of diaspora professionals

  3. 03

    Selection of 10 scholars into a shared cohort

  4. 04

    Six-month mentorship, support, and prototype shipping period

  5. 05

    End-of-cohort presentations with demonstrated product progress

Judges review for

  • Clarity of the problem being solved
  • Evidence that the applicant can actually build, not just describe, the solution
  • Potential for meaningful Nigerian community impact

Outcome model

Talent without tools becomes a delay. Talent with tools becomes a product.

Before

  • Strong curiosity but no reliable hardware
  • Slow learning because internet access is inconsistent
  • Few mentors, little structure, and almost no seed support

After

  • Laptop, internet support, mentorship, and seed funding
  • Shipped prototype or community project with visible traction
  • First real users in Nigeria and a builder identity strengthened by proof

Success metric

Each scholar must ship a working prototype or community project, and the goal is for each product to be used by at least 10 Nigerians within one year of receiving the scholarship.

Application essay question

“What are you building and why does Nigeria need it?”

Every applicant answers this single question with a written essay and a working prototype or project. The answer is the application.

Closing Remarks

Access changed my trajectory. This scholarship is how I would multiply that same shift for builders in Nigeria who are already doing the hard part: showing up, learning, and trying to ship something real.

Sinclair Nzenwata

Founder, Access to Build

Interested applicants

Get notified when Access to Build opens.

If you want to apply when the scholarship rolls out, use the interest form and leave your contact details. I’ll use that list to notify future applicants when applications are live.

Join applicant waitlist

Sponsors and partners

Help sponsor access for students studying abroad and building for home.

If you want to support the scholarship as a sponsor, mentor, or partner, use the same form to express interest. The goal is to build a network that funds devices, internet, seed support, and long-term opportunity for students with real builder potential.

Become a sponsor