Equity scholars soar to fly among the best

According to the latest QR rankings of universities, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States proudly occupies position one with 100 reference points.

In the next fourteen (14) positions stand the following universities, nine (9) of which are American, four (4) English and one Swiss. By these particular rankings, the top 15 universities in the world in 2012 were: MIT, University of Cambridge, Harvard University, University College, London, University of Oxford, Imperial College, London, Yale University, University of Chicago, Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

The next five were Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich), Cornell University and the California-based Stanford University.

If you can get your child admitted to one of these universities, then you can be sure you have given him or her the best possible opportunity or chance for succeeding academically at the global level.

Universities rarely come better than these, when most of the relevant factors, such as research and tuition, are taken into account.

Through the Equity Bank University Sponsorship and Leadership Programme, 89 young Kenyans have already received scholarships to study at most of these world-class universities. This year alone, 18 young Kenyans coming through the bank’s top scholars’ internship programme, will be joining some of these top universities.

Under this programme, Harvard University has already taken in 14 Equity Bank scholars on full scholarships while Yale has already admitted seven. The University of Pennsylvania and Cornell have taken in four scholars each while Brown University has already admitted three.

Scores of Kenyan scholars under the mentorship of Equity Bank have also been admitted to numerous other top universities around the world. Among such top universities where these Kenyan young men and women are now full time under or post-graduate students are Cambridge and the University of Manchester in England, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, MIT and Duke in the US, the University of Cape Town in South Africa, the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Seoul National University in South Korea.

Of the 18 who will be joining these top universities this year, seven are young women from all the major regions of this country.

Even the secondary schools through which these young scholars emerged appear as if they were selected at random.

There is a young man from Moi Kabarak in Nakuru County, another from Nairobi School, a third from St. Peter’s Seminary in Kakamega and yet another from Tenwek High School in Bomet County. On the other side of the gender divide, is a young lady from St. Clare Girls in Kajiado County, another from Kisumu Girls, a third from Kenya High School in Nairobi and yet another from Starehe Girls in Limuru.

The selections for these Equity Bank mentorships also appear to have been largely blind to any tribal considerations. There is an Albert Wandui who is proceeding to Stanford, a Steven Laboso (Cornell), a Job Nalianya (Stanford), a Benson Chuma (Cape Town), and an Antony Kariuki (Brown).

Among the young ladies, there is a Beatrice Kemboi who has been admitted to Michigan State University in the United States, a Brenda Njoroge (Smith College), a Diana Mong’are (Pennsylvania) and a Lavender Otieno who is proceeding to Cambridge University in England.

The simple reality

Taking all these scholarships together since this programme was started, almost the entire country has now been covered.

As the country’s politicians continue to bicker and fight over who will occupy and hold which political office, an indigenous bank is quietly placing scores of young Kenyan girls and boys in some of the best universities in the world thus enabling them to play and operate at the highest academic, managerial and leadership levels globally.

Through this programme, Equity Bank is quietly revolutionising our education system as it sets the academic bars so high that, very soon, young Kenyan academics, professionals and corporate leaders may begin competing very seriously at the international level.

In these emerging, youthful, Equity-driven and moulded circles, it will no longer be a question of whether one went to the University of Nairobi, Maseno or Moi University, but whether she or he went to Cambridge, Harvard, MIT or Stanford. The academic goalposts and bars are being moved and raised right under our noses and without fanfare or chest thumping.

The simple reality is that there is no greater investment that any individual or institution can make towards the development of a nation than that which is made in the education of its children.

In terms of the final output relative to the aggregate input, such investment in education far supersedes everything we plough into our roads, forests, power generation and security services combined.

As the years go by, the real value of what Equity Bank is currently doing in our education sector will become evident for all to see. That these young scholars will soon become agents of change in the economic and social state of this country and the entire African continent, there can be very little doubt. But, to paraphrase the old Biblical saying, prophets very often go without honour in their own countries.

The writer is a lecturer and consultant in Nairobi.

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