It’s not every day that First Lady Margaret Kenyatta finds time to grace graduation ceremonies in learning institutions.
Her diary is routinely booked with official commitments related to health issues especially those focused on mothers and children and HIV/Aids.
But when 47 students from a class of 68 diploma graduands secure international scholarships in prestigious and globally acclaimed universities in America, Europe, Canada, Australia and several Middle East nations , many stakeholders with a soft heart for children take a time to appreciate the heroic achievement.
It is this gallant achievement that took the First Lady to Aga Khan Academy, Mombasa today to preside over the 10th graduation ceremony where two of the Diplomates, both Girls, Sumera Yego and Magdalena Chizi were also the first Kenyans to achieve the gold-level President’s Award-Kenya (PA-K, 2015) via the online documentation platform introduced in the country last year.
The 47 uniquely talented students have accumulatively secured scholarships worth US dollars 5.3 million in various internationally reputable universities including Yale, Johns Hopkins, Emory, New York, Abu Dhabi, California Berkley, British Columbia McGill , and Toronto among others.
Aga Khan Academy, incorporating both Primary and Secondary schools, follows the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum and its graduates receive Diplomas to allow them direct entry into various universities to pursue a lucrative career related programs including rocket science and space exploration.
IB programs challenge students to excel in their studies and encourage both personal and academic achievement. The objective of the IB program is to produce “locally rooted (to respective country) global citizens” according to the Academy’s Head of the Mombasa academy Mr. William O. Hearn.
The Aga Khan network operates academies across the world including Kenya, India, and Maputo, Mozambique.
First Lady Margaret Kenyatta, who is in the coastal region to deliver Beyond Zero’s 40th fully kitted mobile clinic to Lamu County and also visit Mombasa’s SOS children’s village broke her schedule to join the proud parents and teachers at the Academy’s graduation ceremony.
The First Lady told the graduating candidates they must henceforth make the right choices that positively determine their destinies away from the scrutiny of teachers and parents and thousands of miles away and individually scattered all over the world.
“I believe you’re ready for the ups and downs that lie ahead of you—the difficult choices, and demanding workloads, the peculiar challenges, and unprecedented successes, the hard work, the hiccups, the heartbreaks and the happiness that, hopefully, the future holds for all of you”,she told the Academy’s garduates of 2016.
The First Lady told the graduands to always stand for the truth even when their decisions were not always the most popular.
She challenged the students to embrace give back to society whatever they could by contributing their gifts and brilliant minds to the world, making bio-medical discoveries that change lives, designing rockets for space exploration, coding incredible websites or standing for justice as lawyers or treating the sick as doctors.The First ready asked the students to pursue their career paths with excellence and also embrace the virtues of moral uprightness, patience, considerate and honest in all their dealings.
The First Lady was accompanied to the Function by Coast Regional Coordinator Mr.Nelson Marwa and the Director of Policy, Ministry of Education, Mr. Darius Mogaka.
The hosts included the President of the Aga Khan Council for Kenya Mr. Nawaaz Gulan, the Director of Academies Mr. Salim Bhatia and the Head of the Mombasa academy Mr. William O. Hearn .