Workshop

From 9:00-12:00 for a week, Drew, another intern, and I led our twenty-one high school scholars in a workshop on the college application process, both Kenyan and American. We also covered essay writing, interview skills, and the topic of financial aid. I can easily say I learned just as much from these students as they did from me. During our first icebreaker, we asked them to introduce themselves and answer the question, ‘which super power do you wish you had any why?’ after Drew and I gave our answers of flying and invisibility, respectively. Zainab, one of the students, followed with ‘I wish I could travel in time so that I could go back and prevent discrimination from ever beginning’. Not exactly your typical 14-year-old answer.

For the essay-writing portion, we asked the students to explain who they are through a story. Essay topics varied from heartbreaking recollections of the 2007 post-election violence to the joyous moments of receiving their secondary school scholarship, and even others simply sharing stories of daily life in Kibera. One of the students, after telling a moving story about avoiding gang violence, concluded, “I never lost hope because at the back of my mind I knew that with hard work, determination, and optimism, I’ll pursue my dream career and prove them wrong that even slum children have dreams that they can pursue if they have an opportunity to go to school.”

Over the last few weeks, I’ve enjoyed doing one-on-one sessions with all of the students, and using the College Board college match program to find each student a list of five schools they should consider applying to, then going through Princeton Review’s Top 365 Schools to get even more detailed profiles. With new goals in mind, the students returned to school with even more determination to finish at the top of their classes.