“I define peace as having the opportunities, resources and the power to understand your surroundings and to be able to live with people who look or speak differently from you without seeing the difference ”
Lydia is the seventh of thirteen children, born to an agricultural family in western Kenya. She completed her primary school education with good grades that guaranteed her a place at a well-reputed academic institution. However, due to limited funds in her family, she was forced to repeat the last two years of primary school to let her own siblings go ahead with high school. After 2 extra years in primary school, Lydia was able to score well enough to earn a place at one of the most coveted national schools in Kenya. At her high school, Lydia steadily rose through the ranks of academic excellence until finally, she graduated with a top score and earned a spot in KenSAP’s 2007 cohort.
In 2008, shortly after Kenya’s worst period of post-election violence, Lydia was admitted to Hamilton College in upstate New York. The incidences back home, and specifically in her village in Barekeiwo greatly shaped her college career and beyond. In her junior year, Lydia took an initiative to fix the damage done by the post-election violence in her community by complementing a pre-existing structure in order to qualify it as a state-funded secondary school. Her hopes to restore peace in a falling community of diverse ethnicities were driven to reality by a generous grant from the Kathryn Wasserman Davis Projects for Peace fund, in addition to massive support from her community.
Lydia overseeing construction of new structures at Barekeiwo Secondary School
“At her high school, Lydia steadily rose through the ranks of academic excellence until finally, she graduated with a top score and earned a spot in KenSAP’s 2007 cohort. In 2008, shortly after Kenya’s worst period of post-election violence, Lydia was admitted to Hamilton College in upstate New York.”
Lydia’s academic prowess proved to be just as great as her social impact. In her final year at Hamilton, she was offered a full scholarship to pursue her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Princeton University, an offer which she gladly accepted. At Princeton, her research mainly revolved around how light energy acts as a catalyst for chemical reactions. Her work on this topic is greatly cited, even as she continues to learn more at her current position as a Senior Research Investigator at Bristol-Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical company.
Though she is currently based in the United States as a researcher, Lydia firmly believes she is an educator. Barekeiwo Secondary School now has a student population of 200 and counting. In addition, she is greatly involved with the Lornah Kiplagat Foundation, and Sports Academy which aims to change the future of Kenya by offering Kenyan girls the best quality of academic and sports training. Lydia believes that as the middle child, she holds the peacemaker position, and has spent her entire life seeking peace for her community and communities abroad through education, scientific breakthroughs, and sports.
Lydia with Barekeiwo Secondary School students on her peace project