The top student of the 2018 KCSE exams, Juliet Otieno, has bagged a prestigious scholarship to fund her university education to a tune of Sh4 million.
Juliet topped in the 2018 KCSE examinations by scoring grade A with a mean of 87.64 and now wants to use the scholarship to gain admission at Yale University.
The former Pangani girls alumni on Wednesday revealed she will pass a government sponsorship that placed her at the Technical University of Kenya to pursue Aeronautical engineering.
"I will be applying to Yale University before November 1 when the application doors close," the 18-year-old said.
Juliet who is confident in bagging the admission to Yale University, says she is keen on pursuing engineering but still remains split on the specialisation.
"I wanted to do aeronautical engineering but unfortunately it is not offered st Yale so I have to align my choice with what they are offering," she told the Star yesterday in an interview.
She will be part of 24 high school graduates who will be sponsored to join top universities in the USA and Canada under a program titled Kenya Scholar Access Program.
Kennedy airlift
KenSap executive director Alan Davidson likens the program to the Kennedy airlift.
A program that airlifted East African students in the late ’50s and the early ’60s to attend a college education at USA and Canada.
The program began in 1959 and was a brainchild of the late Tom Mboya.
It was sought scholarships for Kenyan students who’s access for higher education was scarce under the British colonial government.
"KenSap beneficiaries might no have made a big impact in the society like the Kennedy airlift program alumni but they sure will be impacting the society in the coming days,"
Over a five year period, the Kennedy airlift program saw nearly 800 young East Africans mostly from Kenya who would go on to change their world and ours.
It is the Kennedy Airlift that opens the chapter for the story of America’s first black president, Barack Obama whose father was a beneficiary of the Kennedy airlift program.
Others supported by the Kennedy airlift included, Wangari Maathai the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, post-colonial period cabinet ministers, ambassadors, university chancellors, clinic and school founders.
KenSap program has so far placed 197 high school graduates since its founding in 2004.
