In our society, it is not unusual to find brilliant people who have sadly not been able to get the chance to achieve their potential. These individuals most often than not usually end up wasting away in the towns and villages.
There are several reasons why this happens but for the most part it has been due to lack of opportunities brought about by inadequate of finances. Essentially, a lot of bright students from poor backgrounds at times find themselves not being able to progress in school due to lack of finances.
This was the case of Christine Njeri, who hails from Bahati in Kamukunji. Growing up, Christine was always a hardworking and bright pupil who was loved by her teachers at Kimathi Primary School. This was despite the fact that she had to miss school a few times due to lack of school fees which her single Mum struggled to pay while making ends meet.
Due to her hard work, Christine managed to get a mark of 393 in her K.C.P.E exams and got admitted to the Mary Hill Girls High School. However, she faced a challenge in that in as much as she had passed her exams well, her Mum could not be able to afford to pay her school fees in the new school. As she was agonizing on the way forward, her former Deputy Principal encouraged her to try out the Wings to Fly program which was giving out scholarships to needy students. She made the application, thereafter, representatives from the Equity Foundation visited her home to ascertain that what she presented was true after which she got the scholarship.
The scholarship meant that Christine finally had stability in her education, and this enabled her to settle down in school and within no time she was among the best students. This is because, the scholarship other than paying for his school fees also provided shopping as well as transport to school and back. She also got a chance to attend conferences organized by Equity where she got to meet various Captains of the industry which acted as a motivation to do better because she could finally see that anything was possible with hard work.
Christine’s hard work saw her excel in the KCSE examinations which enabled to join Massachusetts Institute of Technology to pursue Material Science and Engineering which was a dream come true for her. Before joining university, Christine got an internship at Equity Bank which acted as part of her coaching and mentorship to prepare her for what lay ahead.
Christine plans to use the education that she gets at MIT to empower girls in Kenya especially those who are interested in STEM. She would like to be a role model for these girls to show them that anything is possible with hard work.