Salash Tolan Nabaala was born and raised in Narok county as the last born in a large family. He was admitted to KenSAP in 2013, after which he proceeded to Harvard College to pursue his undergraduate education. Taking advantage of the flexible academic options available to him, Salash was able to explore both Physics and Mathematics, eventually graduating in 2018 with a joint major in both. After graduation, Salash volunteered as a teaching assistant in the Math department at the prestigious University of Nairobi, Kenya. He is currently a first-year Math Ph.D. student at Florida State University.
“I think intellectual pursuits of any kind require time. Never limit yourself.”
“He was admitted to KenSAP in 2013, after which he proceeded to Harvard College to pursue his undergraduate education. ”
While at Harvard, Salash was able to use internship opportunities to engage with his own community back home. As a Freshman, he received funding from Harvard’s Math department which enabled him to distribute math textbooks to high school students in Kenya. As Salash recalled,
“My math Professor realized I was taking more advanced classes than he’d expect from students from Kenya; he had taught a senior who was from Kenya and it was his understanding that one had to take a couple of introductory classes before enrolling in the class I was taking. This surprised him, and after explaining to him that I read the material needed through PDFs I had printed from the internet, he thought it would be a good idea if i secured some funding to distribute linear algebra textbooks in some high schools in Kenya.”
Salash saw this project as a platform to provide for younger students the resources that he did not have, and he sees it as one of the highlights of his college career. His other college highlights included playing rugby and later joining the futsal team.
Faced with a variety of choices and uncertainty about which passion to pursue, Salash’s independent mathematical research as a Sophomore was a particularly eye-opening experience. Even though the research was on an elementary topic in mathematics, the research showed him that pursuing mathematical research, as opposed to physics research, was something he wanted to do. This influenced his decision to volunteer as a Math teaching assistant in Kenya and to later pursue a Ph.D. in the discipline. “I think intellectual pursuits of any kind require time and I’m lucky to have been accorded this time when I was young (and even now). I am a male last born child in an otherwise large family. Therefore, I had no chores or any necessary responsibilities. This left all my time to myself. I don’t think most people have this privilege, especially girls in communities where they are expected to do all the household chores and still carve out some time for their passions. The same can be said of anyone coming from a marginalised community in which survival is the only virtue that can be pursued.” Salash expressed his gratitude for having an opportunity to have the gift of time which he used to sharpen his intellect from a very young age. He believes that human beings, regardless of their social, racial, or economic background deserve to cultivate the fruits found within them and fight against the internal voices that limit them.
Although Salash cannot pinpoint an exact moment as the highlight of his university experience, he had the following to say about his college experience: “It was a slow and sudden realization in the end of how much more my inner and intellectual worlds had grown. It was a good moment to realize how much college had surprised me. There was a lot that got lost in the fog of the four years of college; but which nonetheless ultimately add up to this: I should never limit myself.” While Salash is serious in his pursuit of STEM, he proceeds to challenge perceptions one might have about students studying STEM fields. He appreciates mathematical humor but is also very passionate about soccer and discusses the football leagues with as much enthusiasm as he does Maxwell’s equations. In addition, Salash enjoys being deeply immersed in Maasai culture. He also enjoys reading and writing poetry: his favorite poem, one he describes to have given him the mindset to overcome challenges in his life is “Hope is the thing with feathers,” by Emily Dickinson.
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all, And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm, That could abash the little bird, That kept so many warm. I've hard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me