2010 SCHOLARSHIP AWARD RECIPIENTS

Jacinta Adongo Otsembo’s childhood dream was to become a pilot. She admired pilots and would run outside whenever she heard a plane passing. At the end of elementary school, not surprisingly, her views changed. She decided to follow her father, a doctor, into the profession of medicine—even though this required, as he regularly pointed out, that she succeed in her least favorite subject, mathematics. She responded to his encouragement and also learned that being a doctor meant more than “injecting people.”

This new goal and much else seemed to spin out of reach, however, with her father’s untimely death. As Jacinta writes, her mother, unemployed and now with two young daughters to raise on her own, “struggled very hard to see me finish Secondary School.” With financial support from family and well-wishers, Jacinta was enrolled in St. Cecilia’s. There she not only achieved high marks on her Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education but also demonstrated the quality of character that led to her selection as one of the first two students sponsored by Wenzi kwa Afya to attend River Valley Community College.

Her high school teachers describe her as “industrious and a performer” in academics as well as active in athletics. At RVCC Jacinta will pursue the nursing program, a new approach to the dream of a career in medicine. Who knows what may follow! For the present, she is eager to “come back and serve the Samia community” and also to hopes to encourage other students to do the same.

Daffodil Miriam Mumuli is the sixth born in her family, with four sisters and a brother ahead of her. Although her family comes from western Kenya, her early years were spent in the greater Nairobi area, where she attended a primary school that, she says, “helped me build my character since I was able to interact with all kinds of people from different races and family backgrounds.”

Daffodil early on found school to be “the most enjoyable experience in my life.” It still is, she affirms, but she also observes that as she matured she got “more interested in sports and other co-curricular activities.” In fact, when she entered St. Cecilia’s, she joined the basketball team which reached District and Provincial levels during her first two seasons. Daffodil acknowledges that she had “some rough times” in school—candidly confessing that she even earned suspension on one occasion for misbehaving in class.

She is, however, quite appreciative of what she learned from this experience. As Daffodil puts it, “I brought myself closer to my teachers and was able to discuss with them my interest to do a course in medicine.” Her view is that “one mistake can make you become better in life if you only you admit it, and take the correction positively.” This observation proved prophetic. Daffodil was selected this year by a committee of teachers, school administrators, and community members on the basis of her achievements and demonstrated character to join River Valley Community College with the sponsorship of Wenzi kwa Afya.