05 Apr 2016

Mr Seabelo ‘Chabo’  John (20) is slowly carving a name for himself. 

He has designed an iOS Apple Operating System application dubbed Better Me, an application designed to be used on iPhones and will soon be used on Samsung and other Android devices. 

The Kanye born  is a student at Rhodes College, a university in Memphis, Tennessee United State of America. 

He joined other students from around the world where they were challenged to come up with new technological ideas to revolutionalise the world through creative entrepreneurship.

Mr John said in an interview that as one of the national top colleges, Rhodes College organised a hackathon, an event where a large number of students meet to engage in collaborative computer programming.

Held earlier this year as one of the biggest event in the school calendar, the Rhodes Hacks gave him an opportunity to partner with his colleague, a second year student Nick Marinella from Austin, Texas, to come up with the application.

He noted that all students from first year to fourth year were challenged to compete in three different categories of technology, design, and service for innovation. 

Mr John, a student of International Business Management Urban Studies - Community Health (Liberal Arts Double Major) has always had a dream of changing the world hence taking advantage of opportunities availed to him.

Thus he did not allow himself to be intimidated by other whizz-kids who were competing for the same title with him.  

“There were 20 other students in the competition and I just wanted to create an application that no one has ever made. All I wanted was to make a unique application that will serve multiple purposes at the same time,” he said.

He explained that he was inspired by his love to helping others and making their lives better hence agreeing with his colleague to name the application ‘Better Me’.

“To come up with such an application I used around 18 hours of the 24 hours given to us in the competition. The event started at 18:00 hours in the evening on January 22, 2016 and ended the following day in the afternoon,” he said.

The youthful leader said he translated the functions of the application into Setswana and Spanish to promote diversity and to help other people beyond cultural boundaries, adding that as a Motswana he wanted to represent his culture too. 

He said his colleague`s contribution in making the application a success was to design the face and background of it then they merged, joined their ideas together after agreeing on what to include in their masterpiece.

The young scholar did his form 3 at Ngwaketse Junior Secondary School and was one of the Top 10, JCE Top Achievers in 2011. He proceeded to Maru-a-Pula School where he got a scholarship to study in the USA.

He urged his peers to never stop dreaming and to strive towards achieving their goals.  ``Let us all take education seriously so that we can improve our country and help change the world, he said.”

Mr John who shares his birthday with former President Sir Ketumile Masire said “the great leader once told me that they have laid the foundation now it was upon the young ones to build it and I am doing exactly that.”

Before leaving for America he established an organisation called Visionaries at Maru-a-Pula School with fellow Top Achiever, Ms Mercy Radithupa. The organisation has tutored mentored and motivated students from Maoka and Marang junior secondary school in Gaborone, Ngwaketse junior secondary at Kanye, Moshupa Senior Secondary School among others. Ends