We are sure there will come a time when the African Drone and Data Academy in Malawi will be the Harvard of Drone training in Africa, and people will walk the streets wearing hoodies written I went to ADDA, or drive in cars with stickers that say, My Daughter Went To ADDA.

Complete with the ADDA logo and all that.

Our hope is pioneer alumni like Anne Nderitu will not be too old to gloat by then. ADDA only celebrated its first anniversary last month, and Ms Nderitu, the Chief Operating Officer at Kenya Flying Labs was one of the first students through the academy doors when they first opened.

Already holding a degree in Aeronautical Engineering, Anne became part of the first cohort of students at ADDA, from where she graduated with a Trusted Level Operator (TOP) Level 2, a Certificate of Drone Technology (from Virginia Tech) and Remote Pilot License.

Come to think of it; Anne can don that ADDA T-shirt right, for the sheer accomplishment of having been there first.

And on it, she can write the words; ADDA: First Class.

She also holds the unique honour of being the first female fixed -wing drone pilot in Kenya.

Her work at Kenya Flying Labs has taken her through various drone-based humanitarian projects that include cholera hyper-surveillance to predict and mitigate outbreaks in Kenya.

You can learn more about Anne, her passion for drone technology and more, in a conversation she had on Women and Drones Africa’s latest instalment of Trailblazing Women.