A KCSE graduate student living at Tassia Estates in Embakasi, Nairobi is working so hard to become the first in his family to gain admission to the university.
Omondi Owera Calvince, who currently lives with his older brother, a Boda Boda businessman, has been trying to collect dimes for Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in September by working on construction sites in one of Kenya’s cities.
Candidates for the 2018 Kenyan Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) from St. Vincent Mixed Secondary School in Oyugis have obtained a C+ and entered Tom Mboya University College to pursue their Bachelor of Education (Arts, IT)
“I couldn’t study at all in the second semester of my fourth year, and I was busy looking for tuition fees by hanging around Daiyuki as a part-time worker. When I got to my third semester, I got a call from the principal and was told to complete my education only because the principal saw a college material in me,” he said.
Born into a poor family, where his father was a security guard and his mother a subsistence farmer, this student quickly understood what kind of family he came from and his passion for learning forced him to go around looking for different jobs to work so that he can raise some money during his vacation holidays.
He struggles to realize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of being the first in his family to go to college. His older brother dropped out of high school and his younger brother and young sister are still in primary school.
The aspiring college student said he applied for jobs in many places to no avail, and ended up earning money as a temporary worker at a construction site.
