Hello, I'm Henni.
Still curious.
Still learning.
I've made paper, fixed computers, raised a son, taught university students in China — and now I'm learning to build artificial intelligence. Life has taken me places I never expected.
Come along for the journey ↗From Springs, South Africa, to classrooms across the world.
Some stories begin with a plan.
Mine began with change.
A life in chapters
Not a list of job titles. The real stories behind the decisions, challenges, people and opportunities that shaped my life.
Thirteen schools. Eleven years.
A childhood of moving, new schools, and wondering what staying in one place might have been like.
Read the chapter ↗02The paper factory
Leaving school, making paper at Sappi in Springs, and deciding my future had to change.
Read the chapter ↗03When the house went quiet
Single parenthood, MBA textbooks, early-morning exams, and paying the final instalment before graduation.
Read the chapter ↗04A South African in China
Teaching, exploring new cultures, and discovering that learning goes in both directions.
Read the chapter ↗05The student returns
From decades in computer support to building AI services — and discovering how much there still is to learn.
Read the chapter ↗06The human side
Why empathy, relationships and the people in our lives matter just as much as technology.
Read the chapter ↗
The world became another classroom.
Growing up, I went to thirteen schools in eleven years. I would have loved to keep the same childhood friends. Perhaps all the moving helped make me an explorer. I don't know for certain — but curiosity has stayed with me.
Years later, that curiosity took me to university classrooms in China and into experiences I could never have predicted.
Explore the journey ↗“We can never stop learning. And I don't intend to stop now.”
— Henni Appelgryn
What I'm exploring today
Artificial intelligence.
Human curiosity.
After more than twenty years working in computer support and many years of university teaching, building local AI services has put me back on a steep learning curve. Some days the technology cooperates. Other days, not so much.
My guiding idea is simple: Human + Artificial = Augmented Intelligence.
The latest chapter ↗
There's always another chapter.
Thanks for stopping by. I'm glad you're here.