Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 3
Welcome to the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series! In this series, we will hear and learn from current and old Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors about their personal experiences with the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program and why they think students should join and be a part of the program and community. Today, I will be interviewing David Attamah, a Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador. An Electronic Engineering student from University of Nigeria in Enugu State, Nigeria. He loves everything Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Power Platform. What are your personal experiences in the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program? The Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program provided a platform for me to develop skills, engage with a vibrant community of fellow ambassadors, Microsoft MVPs, Cloud Advocates, and most importantly, Microsoft employees. This is one of the best Student Ambassadors program and I can confidently say that it stands at the top of similar programs. This program gave me the energy to try out things I never thought I could do. I got introduced to Microsoft tools and technologies; Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Copilot, et cetera. I had the opportunity of hosting over 30 skilling events both online and in-person. As an Ambassador, I always find opportunities to learn, mentor, collaborate, contribute, share, and have fun. I have mentored both prospective student and current student ambassadors. I have collaborated with fellow student ambassadors in one initiative or another. There is this particular one that I lead with 5 other student ambassadors where fellow ambassadors had to sign up every quarter to participate to skill up their community in Microsoft technologies. Up to 1000 individuals benefited through such initiative by getting free Microsoft certification exam vouchers. I still continue to contribute in the Ambassador community by creating guides to help Ambassadors who just joined the program. The list is endless. With being so active in the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program, does this interfere with your studies? The program is flexible, no matter how engaged a student is, the program will not be a barrier. Being a student and an Ambassador, there was a time, it was difficult for me and other times, it seemed easy. We all have different capacities and strengths and this all boils down to time management. Making sure that the program does not get in your way as a student. Finally, be sure to have fun as an Ambassador. What have you benefited from the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program? A lot of these benefits can be seen in the previous question I answered. But being specific, aside from the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program swags I have received, I have free access to some premium platforms and tool like Microsoft 365, LinkedIn Learning, Visual Studio Enterprise subscription. I have received free Microsoft exam vouchers. This program increased my confidence. I have sent proposals to Vice Chancellors of different schools to introduce Microsoft technologies in their school. A good number accepted my proposal. I have spoken at events in some of these schools like Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu. I have access to a global community of people who use Microsoft technologies. I can simply send a chat instead of an email. The benefits keep increasing as the need arises. What advice do you have for students and why do you think they should join the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program? This is one of the best global student community that a student who is 16 years and above in an institution can join. You don't need to be an expert in anything nor do you need to have prior knowledge of any technology. You need to be a learner, be open-minded, be willing to try new things. Be sure to reach out to a current Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador if you need to ask one or two questions. Take advantage of the free premium tools and platforms you have access to in building yourself while you're in the program. Put yourself out there in the world through this program. You can join the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador Program by applying here Check out the previous series Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 1 - Microsoft Community Hub Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 2Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 4
Welcome to the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series! In this series, we will hear and learn from current and old Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors about their personal experiences with the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program and why they think students should join and be a part of the program and community. Today, I will be interviewing Sophia Iroegbu, she is a Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador from Nigeria, studying Plant Health Management at Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Umuahia, Abia How did you get to know about the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program? In 2021, a friend told me about the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program and how it would help me meet other developers. I applied for the first cohort in 2022 but didn't get in. Then I met Kojo Shaddy, a now MVP who assisted me with my application, we had calls and he mentioned how my answers were not compelling enough. I later got in the April of 2022 and it's been a fun ride ever since then. What is your personal experience with the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program? This is the best student program I have joined. I am also part of other student programs/communities but the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program just hits different. The welcoming community, the friends I met, the advice I got. made it all worth it. I met friends who motivated me to become better, who helped me prep for interviews, who gave me negotiation advice (which I had no idea I was supposed to do). What have you benefited from the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program? Besides the incentives which has helped me in so many ways than one, I also got amazing friends who can GEEK out with me and not make me feel like a nerd. I made amazing friendships that has gone outside of tech stuff and for that I am forever grateful. What advice do you have for students and why do you think they should join the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program If you ever need a place to grow, learn and build with amazing folks, the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program is the right one for you. At first, it would feel so weird, it would feel you are left out but participate in events, help promote other people's event, have chats with other student ambassadors. You would find out they were once as clueless as you and are willing to help. Apply and Join the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program Listen to other Student ambassadors as they share their experience with the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors program. Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 1 - Microsoft Community Hub Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 2 - Microsoft Community Hub Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 3 - Microsoft Community HubMicrosoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program Interview Series Episode 1
In this series, we will hear and learn from current and old Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors about their personal experiences with the Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors Program and why they think students should join and be a part of the program and community.How to Populate SharePoint List with Files from SharePoint Document Library using Power Automate
Microsoft SharePoint Online is a platform for document management, information sharing, internal collaboration and more that is a part of the Microsoft 365 family of apps. In this blog post, I will show you how to create a document library and list in SharePoint for an Employee Record and how to populate the data from an Excel sheet in SharePoint Document Library using a Power Automate Flow. This process eliminates the process of entering the data from the Excel sheet manually into the SharePoint list. It enables us to easily automate all the data in the Excel sheet into our SharePoint list. Use Case: Track Employee Data Record Here we will work on a scenario to help better understand the process. The HJK company has started making changes to the way they work and one of those things is moving their employee's data from an Excel sheet where it is stored to a SharePoint list. This can be done manually but they will prefer a process where the moving of the data can be achieved easily. In the Excel sheet these are the data types of the columns in the table. Column Data Type EEID Text Job Title Text Department Text Business Unit Text Gender Text Ethnicity Text Age Number Hire Date Date Annual Salary Currency Country Text City Text Exit Date Date Disclaimer: This is not an actual company but a scenario created to show you how the populating process works with SharePoint and Power Automate. The Excel sheet used in this blog post is a free sample data gotten online. Note: Make sure the Data in your Excel sheet is in a table format. I will walk you through the process Create the SharePoint Document Library. Upload the Excel file to the SharePoint Document Library Create the SharePoint List for the employee's data. Create the Instant cloud flow to populate the SharePoint list Create a SharePoint Document Library In this step, we will be working on creating the document library where the Excel sheet that contains the Company's employee information will be uploaded. Login into Microsoft 365. At the left hand side, click on the App Launcher. 2. From the App launcher we will be clicking on SharePoint. From this process we can easily access SharePoint Online. From the list of application shown, click on SharePoint. 3. I already created my SharePoint site so lets go ahead and create our SharePoint Document Library. Click on +New. 4. After clicking on Document library from the drop-down, this gives us an opportunity to create a New SharePoint document library. So on the right hand side, on Name, give the document library a name (a name that you can easily identify and understand). Here I will be using Employee_Record. Next, click on Create. Upload the Excel Sheet to the Document Library In this step, we would be uploading the excel sheet to the SharePoint Document Library. With this process it will make it easier for us to populate the SharePoint list with the data in the Excel sheet easily using power Automate. Follow these steps: 1. At the top of the screen close to the name of the document library click on Upload. After clicking on Upload, we have a drop-down of names to select from which is Files, Folder and Template. Here we will be click on Files. 2. Next, click on the file you need uploaded. Here I will be clicking on the Excel file named Excel Record Sample Data. Next click on Open. From the second screenshot below you can see our excel sheet Employee record sample data has been uploaded to our document library. Create the SharePoint List In this step, we will work on creating the SharePoint list which will be the new place were will be keeping track of the employee's record data in the company. 1. Let's go ahead and create the Employee SharePoint list. At this step we have already created the SharePoint document library, in order to leave the SharePoint document library click on the name of the SharePoint Site, here the name of SharePoint site is Communication site. 2. Now let's create the SharePoint list by clicking on +New at the left-hand side of our screen. 3. After clicking on + New, it shows a drop-down that shows List, Document Library, Page, Space, News post, News link, App. Here we will be clicking on List. 4. Click on Blank list. We have different options here to create our SharePoint list which can either use a blank list, from an already existing list or from an Excel sheet. Our data is an Excel file and we might think of going for this option but it most advisable to create the list from blank. 5. After clicking on the Blank list option for the SharePoint list, now we need to give the list a name and description which is optional. Here on Name I am naming my list as Employee Sample Data to make it easier for me to identify what the SharePoint is for. Click on Create. 6. We will adding the columns shown in the Excel sheet to the list. The first column we will be creating here is EEID which the data type is a single line of text. Click on +Add Column, select Text as the data type and this is a Single line of text. Click on Next. 7. On Name, give your column a name. Here I will be using EEID. Click on Save Note: None of this columns created here are required columns, so take notice of this when creating your column. When creating a column the field for Description is optional. 8. From the screenshot above you can notice the column named Title, this is a default column that is created with the SharePoint list and would not be needed. In this step, will be the hiding the Title Column. Click on drop-down beside Title. Click on Column settings. Click on Show/hide column.On click on Title and then click on Apply. 8. Let’s add the next column to the SharePoint list. Click on +Add Column.Select Text. Click on Next. Give the column a name here on Name I will be giving my Column Job Title. Click on Save. Next, add the remaining columns to the SharePoint List with their specific data types. Column Data Type EEID Single line of text Job Title Single line of text Department Single line of text Business Unit Single line of text Gender Single line of text Ethnicity Single line of text Age Number Hire Date Date Annual Salary Currency Country Single line of the text City Single line of text Exit Date Date Populate the SharePoint List using Power Automate In this step, we will be working on creating the flow that will be used to auto populate the SharePoint list with the data from the Excel sheet. 1. Login Power Automate 2. On the Home screen at the left-side of your screen. Click on Create. Here we will creating an Instant cloud flow; this is a type of Power Automate cloud flow that only runs when a button is triggered. Click on Instant cloud flow. 3. Next thing here is to name your flow and select the trigger. Give your flow a name you can easily identify. Here, I will be using Populate Employee Record. From choose how to trigger this flow, select the trigger Manually trigger a flow. Click on Create. 4. Add another action to the flow. Click on +New Step. 5. On choose an operation, search for the action, List rows present in table. Click on the action. 6. In the List rows present in a table action, we have location, document library, file and table. On Location we will be selecting the SharePoint site where our document library is located. On the drop down or search for the name of your SharePoint site and click on it. On Document Library; select the name of the document library you uploaded your Excel sheet. 7. On File; click on the folder icon at the right-hand side. Next, select the file uploaded to the document library. 8. On Table; click on the dropdown and select the Excel table. 9. Add the Apply to each action to the flow. Click on +New step. On choose an operation, search for the action, Apply to each. Click on it. 10. In the Apply to each action, where we have Select an output from previous steps click on the box and go Dynamic content and select value (this is coming from the action List rows present in a table. The screenshot image of this is shown below). 11. Here we will be adding an action inside of the Apply to each. Click on Add an action. On choose an operation, search for the action, Create item and select (The create item action is coming from SharePoint). 12. In the Create item action; on Site Address, click on the dropdown or search for the SharePoint site and select your SharePoint site where your SharePoint list is located. On List name; click on the drop-down and select the name of your SharePoint list. 13. In the Create item action, we have our columns from our SharePoint list listed in the action from the first column EEID to the last column Exit Date. Here, for each columns in the action we will be adding Dynamics contents to them where the Dynamics contents are coming from the action List rows present in a table (which is the data in our excel sheet). On the EEID column in the action, go the Dynamic content and click on the dynamic content EEID. As seen the screenshot image below. Repeat this step for the remaining columns in the action except Title (which we are not using) and Hire date, exit date. 14. For the Hire Date column in the action, while running the flow I ran into an issue in the Hire Date and Exit Date column that addressed that the datetime string must match ISO 8601 format.'. I will be discussing more about this in my newsletter in the following weeks on how I used Copilot to resolve it but here let's go ahead and understand the actions and steps used. For the Hire Date column, before the apply to each action, add the Initialize variable action to the flow. In the initialize variable; on Name give your variable a name and select the Type as a String. Next, add a Set variable action inside of the Apply to each action (this action should come before the Create item action). In the Set variable action; on Name go to your dynamic content and select the variable coming from the initialize variable action. On Value add the expression addDays('1899-12-30',int(items('Apply_to_each')?['Hire Date']),'yyyy-MMM-dd') Now go ahead to the Create item action and on the Hire Date column, go to the dynamic content and select the variable. Repeat this step for Exit Date. 15. So here let's make a few changes to our flow, this step allows the flow to populate more than 150 items to the SharePoint list. Click on the three dots at the right-hand side of the action List row present in a table action. Click on Settings. 16. On the toggle button for Pagination, switch it on and on Threshold enter the value 2000. Click on Done. Save and run the flow. Thank you for reading! Resources How to delete items in a SharePoint list using Power Automate
The Remarkable Journey of Microsoft Communities in Northern Nigeria
In 2019, a staggering statistic from the World Bank revealed that 87% of Nigeria's impoverished population resided in the North. Motivated by this alarming reality, Hriscare International Foundation, a local NGO in Northern Nigeria, embarked on a mission to combat poverty. Fortuitously, during the Microsoft Certified Trainer West Africa boot camp in Abuja that same year, Tabitha Hris, the founder of Hriscare International Foundation, and Collins Ajonye, CEO of GovirtualAfrica, were introduced to the Microsoft Certified Trainers West Africa Bootcamp which was held in Abuja . This encounter highlighted the absence of an active Microsoft community in Northern Nigeria. Guided by Mr. Seyi Oluwawujumi and Mr. Ayodeji Folarin, Tabitha Hris and Collins Ajonye resolved to establish the Northern Microsoft Community. In 2021, Hriscare International Foundation initiated a program called Techprenuer's Ignite with Microsoft, launching the first project in Jos, Plateau State. This initiative led to the creation of the Jos Microsoft Community, followed by the Abuja Microsoft Community. These communities actively work towards replication in other Northern states. GovirtualAfrica partnered with Hriscare Foundation, providing co-working spaces and halls for training sessions in Jos , Plateau State while Fulcrum iLab in Abuja extended their facilities to support the Abuja Microsoft Community. Over the past year, since the establishment of the Microsoft Communities in Northern Nigeria, facilitated by Hriscare International Foundation, numerous success stories have emerged. Each community comprises Students Communities, Women Communities , and General group (Professionals , Students and others), fostering inclusive participation. Remarkably, the Northern Microsoft Community has already produced the region's first Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (Tabitha Hris) and Five Microsoft Learn Student Ambassadors (Panshak Koproda, Joshua Dakim, Paul Umaru, Christiana Hris, and Nyipoji Jibarang), solidifying their pioneering status in Northern Nigeria. Earlier this year, Hriscare International Foundation took a step towards inclusivity by including visually impaired individuals in the Jos Microsoft Community. One standout participant was Kefas Lungu, a visually impaired student at the University of Jos. Within two months of joining the community, Kefas achieved remarkable success. He was the first to complete the Microsoft Student Skills Summit challenge, a task created by Microsoft for the global summit's after-party in March. Additionally, he developed a powerful solution using Power Automate. Inspired to streamline his daily tasks, Kefas Lungu , a visually impaired University of Jos student who created and presented a powerful solution at the just concluded Global Power Platform Bootcamp 2023 in Jos . He joined Jos Microsoft Community two months ago and has been on fire! Kefas automated a tool that checks for operating system updates, installs pending updates, removes unnecessary files, and scans for damaged system files. This tool proved invaluable, saving him significant time and ensuring the optimal performance of his system. Hi, my name is Kefas James Lungu, a 300-level student of history and international studies university of JOS. I’m a visually Impaired person from Adamawa state Nigeria. I’m a python and C developer who in February attended a Microsoft event in Jos, and picked interest and I decided to take the challenge during the Microsoft Student Summit and was able to finish within 2 days, becoming the first person to finish the challenge. After the Event, I was inspired to use power automate to automate one of those tasks I do often. I didn’t want it to be too complex, so I automated a tool that checks for operating system update instead of doing it manually, checks and automatically install all pending updates on the system, removes junks and other unnecessary files from the computer. Then, it will proceed to scan your system for damaged or missing any operating system files, and fix them all. Before now, I had to do these things manually, and depending on your number of apps, it can be very time consuming, given that different apps have separate ways of checking for updates. Plus, you must do these tasks as much as necessary to prevent operating system malfunctioning, and with the rising cyber threats, it is always advisable to keep all your apps up to date. And that is where the tool come in handy. My desktop flow was highly inspired by this tool. Apart from this, I sometimes practice coding with leetcode to enhance my coding skills. One of the major challenges I fazed during my tech journey and still facing is having to deal with inaccessible infrastructures. My next target is to build a bott with the power virtual agent, but I don’t know when that will be. The Northern Microsoft Community in Nigeria is witnessing a substantial shift in the adoption of Microsoft tools, leading to improved employment prospects for its members. Although there is still progress to be made, the community acknowledges the positive strides they have taken. By embracing the latest Microsoft technologies and fostering innovation tailored to their unique needs, they believe it is possible to eradicate poverty in Northern Nigeria.Explore Innovative Technologies with Microsoft Reactor's Post Student Summit Event Series
Microsoft Reactor is hosting a Post Student Summit event series throughout April and May, following the success of the Student Summit held last March. The series provides opportunities for developers to gain new technical skills and connect with Microsoft's inclusive community. The virtual events cover a range of topics, including Azure Speech Service, Azure DataWorks, and AI on Azure. Don't miss out on the chance to register for the free sessions
