I imagine many of you would welcome some good news about college admissions for a change. Well, here it is. The last of the admission decisions for KenSAP’s current group of college candidates have been announced, and I'm delighted to report that, once again, all of our kids are in – through the “front door” entirely on their own merits!
All eighteen KenSAP students will be on their way to top US colleges in August 2019. These latest admissions maintain the 100% admission record that KenSAP has kept up since 2006 and bring to 197 the total number of students KenSAP has placed at highly selective colleges in the past fifteen years.
We’re naturally very proud of those figures, but perhaps even prouder that of the 179 students who have so far matriculated at their highly competitive American colleges, 174 (97%) either have graduated or are making timely progress toward graduation. What’s more, of our 114 KenSAP graduates to date, fifteen are pursuing or have earned doctoral degrees at such universities as Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Michigan State and U.Va. Dozens more are enhancing their skills with US employers like Google, Oracle, Tesla, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley, and more than 50 are back in Kenya, working for multinationals, NGOs or Kenyan companies, or developing their own startups. And, as I mentioned in December, one of our recent graduates, Claudia Kahindi (Wesleyan 2018) will be off to Oxford in September as KenSAP’s first Rhodes Scholar.
The admission results are below:
Regular Decision:
Rachel Tuzo Mulunda - Harvard, Williams, Wesleyan, Pomona, Colgate
Sauda Habib Salim - U. Penn, Northwestern, Carleton
Early Decision II (February):
Kennedy Mutai - Haverford
Early Decision (December):
Faith Rugut - Harvard
Emmanuel Kibicho - Yale
Ian Jaccojwang - Princeton
Harriet Muutu - Brown
Christine Ngugi - University of Pennsylvania
Alfred Kibowen - Amherst
Carolyne Chepkemboi - Bates
Quiverline Ochieng - Bowdoin
Emmanuel Kwigenga - Brandeis
Lilian Korir - Davidson
Hussein Fuaad Mahmoud - Johns Hopkins
Smith Gakuya - Middlebury
Erick Meikoki - Northwestern
Hillary Onyore - Vassar
Victor Kilel - Williams
My colleague Alan Davidson will be going back to Kenya next month, and I’ll be joining him in June, when we’ll select another group of college candidates and begin the process again.
Finally, a request for your support. To the many who responded to our recent appeals, I repeat my thanks for your exceptional generosity. And to anyone else who might be in a position to make a contribution to a worthy, tax-deductible cause, I hope you’ll consider KenSAP.
Our fundraising efforts are gaining a little momentum. We’ve held successful gatherings in Nairobi, New York and Washington DC, and we are planning others. More than 100 of our alumni have made donations, and 60 are doing so on a monthly basis – for a total of over $50,000 in the past two years. But above all we count on donations from supporters like you to help us continue what we’ve been doing for fifteen years – placing gifted, needy Kenyan students at some of the world’s best universities, and working to support them through college and beyond. Whatever you can give will be very helpful. Thanks, and all best wishes!