The youngest Microsoft Certified Professional

Arfa Karim Randhawa was an often overlooked, intelligent girl. She was born on the second of February, 1995, in Pakistan and went on to do amazing things. From the age of 9, she was officially Microsoft’s youngest engineer and she also worked for NASA. Due to her outstanding work, she received many awards and became very famous nationally and sometimes even internationally. Unfortunately, she died in 2012 from a heart attack, at the age of 16.

Arfa worked in technology which is quite rare for a young girl in Pakistan. She managed all her families technology (when she died her family didn’t even know the passwords for their email accounts because she managed them all). She passed Microsoft’s entrance test and was even invited to America to meet Bill Gates. She also worked with NASA and was the brand ambassador for Pakistan’s Telecommunication companies 3G Wireless Broadband Service.

Because of all of this, Arfa received many awards including; the Fatimah Jinnah gold medal in the Field of Science and Technology at only 9 years old, was the youngest recipient of the Pride of Performance award and she also won the Salaam Pakistan youth award from the President of Pakistan. Alongside this, she did countless interviews for various different companies. Despite all of this, she still found time to do all the things children usually do, such as playing with dolls, singing, cycling, golf and she particularly enjoyed poetry.

I think she is inspirational and I admire her particularly because she shows people that if you work hard, no matter what your age, you can do anything.

She had many unaccomplished dreams and wanted to help her country. She wanted to make a Digicom valley in her country with free healthcare, free education and free residence. When she died, a technology park was named after her but I don’t think that’s enough. I think she needs more recognition, more appreciation and more admiration.

To me, she is a great role model and I feel, with a little more awareness, she can inspire many more young children around the world. I will end with some of her most famous quotes.

“People say I am a genius. I might be one but I am not the only one. There are many mother Pakistani girls and boys like me. All those gems need, is a little bit of polishing. And I will do that. That’s my aim.”

“If you want to do something big in your life, you must remember that shyness is only the mind. If you think shy, you act shy. If you think confident you act confident. Therefore never let shyness conquer your mind.”

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies in us while we are alive.”