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local Tuesday 23 augusT 2022

Niesha Butler, ex-WNBA athlete and software engineer sees Aruba as a
connection to her deceased mother

‘Coding can be an opportunity to rise from poverty’

“There is potential in Aruba tion on how to deal with At the same time there are
to provide call service and children who cannot sit still, thousands of jobs in tech-
also in the field of informa- cannot focus, are too excit- nology, particularly in cod-
tion, particularly because ed or are too loud. We also ing, that can’t be filled.
the country is multilingual.” learn with the process.” These are jobs that pay big
That is the opinion of Niesha salaries.”
Butler. Butler, native of New Niesha doesn’t have any In other words, there are
York, is a former profession- children of her own and she opportunities, but until now
al basketball player with doesn’t have teaching ex- a lot of people of color in
the WNBA, and an actress; perience, but in her job as New York did not have the
and she knows what she’s a volunteer, visiting schools, possibility to use this trajec-
talking about. she realized how particu- tory. Access to a computer
larly girls would show inter- and stable wi-fi to start is ab-
She has a special connec- est in programming and sent in a lot of these homes.
tion with Aruba. Her mother other STEM (Science, Tech- This is one of the necessary
Alice was born in New York nology, Engineering, Math- conditions to give young
from an Arubian mother, ematics) subjects. Niesha people the space to grow
and lived a long part of her decided to provide the in this subject.
life with her grandparents in program STEAM Champs, Butler’s STEAM Champs
Aruba. And like her mother, with Art in the curriculum. has computer and con-
Niesha, who was born in tinuous wi-fi, so the kids at-
Brooklyn, New York, spent a “I wanted to make oppor- tending the camp can be
lot of time in Aruba with her tunities available for them, sure that they have a safe
grandmother Carmen and but I was nervous because place where they can
her great-grandparents, the top basketball players troleum and Natural Gas, I don’t have experience in work on their future. Data
Joahn and Alice Breetveld. at the high school level. and started her first com- education. But what I real- shows that young persons
pany based on information ized is that children, what who participate in such
Alice, Niesha’s mother, who After a year with New York technology, Sports Data- you need to do is to see programs have more prob-
passed away some years Liberty, she played at the Base Network in 2010. And them. Let them notice that ability of completing higher
ago, grew up in New York professional level in Gran during her career as an IT they have your attention education.
and Aruba, and her family Canaria, Spain, and the professional, Niesha decid- and interest in them. In that
was well-known particularly famous basketball ath- ed to start a non-profit or- moment, they do their best And Butler thinks the chil-
in San Nicolas. Her grand- lete, Stephon Marbury ap- ganization, Ballin Technolo- to fulfill expectations.” dren of Aruba should have
parents were the owners proached her to attend gies, to provide youngsters the same opportunity. More
of the famous Dutch Ma- Georgia Tech. This is how in marginal neighborhoods STEAM Champs got a lot importantly, the fact that in
chine Shop on Congoweg. Niesha became the first fe- in New York the opportunity of attention in the United Aruba various languages
Niesha grew up listening to male athlete at the Univer- to learn the world of cod- States, and in an interview are spoken makes the island
stories about an Aruban sity to win the title of Rookie ing to have better perspec- with ABC News, Butler ex- ideal to work on this poten-
landmark, and perhaps of the Year. She appeared tives for their future. plained that she works with tial, according to Butler.
this pushed Niesha also to in the Spike Lee movie, ‘She interns who also had the But while she is working to
decide to study program- Hate Me’, and starred in What’s more, on the day opportunity to learn cod- provide the kids in New
ming, and now she is a soft- the movie ‘Bringing Rain’ she spoke with our report- ing for the first time. “Peo- York with the necessary
ware engineer. by Noah Buschel, as well er, Niesha had just finished ple sell basketball dreams tools to grow in the tech
as appearing in the first a Saturday session. “Kids. in our community. I think it’s world, Aruba remains as
Butler earned her degree advertisement that Leb- Logic. The first week they very important to sell these the place she visits to feel
as Software Engineer after ron James made for Nike, registered but did not show technical dreams”, Butler closer to her mother. “I real-
a successful career in bas- among other things. up, and today, they did not said. ized that since she passed
ketball, a sport that gave register but did show up.” away, Aruba has been call-
her an opportunity to stand But the blood of an entre- Consequently, she had to She elaborated to our re- ing me. It is an emotional
out. Niesha even was part preneur is in her. As a child prepare her staff on how to porter: “The percentage of connection to my mother,
of the New York City All City she made money selling T- deal with the unexpected. people who live below the and soon I will be back on
Team for four years in a row. shirts, as adult she worked in “But on the other hand, poverty line in New York is Aruba”, Niesha said.q
She is still considered one of the corporate sector of Pe- they receive the prepara- quite large. I was shocked.