Faculty: Science
Program: Food, Nutrition and Health
Year: 2018
Country: Kenya
Born and raised in Kenya but having studied in Ghana, Cecilia tackled each challenge as an opportunity to learn and has thrived since. She is recognized for being confident, resilient and hardworking. In her final year, she was appointed Head Girl of her school for demonstrating the ability to lead as well as being able to balance her school work with her busy extra-curricular schedule. She is also proud to have received a certificate for Best French Student in her class and Awarded best overall student of the year in recognition of her academic excellence. In addition to her academic pursuits, Cecilia participates whole-heartedly in a myriad of activities; she was active in sports, drama club, and her school’s cultural dance group. She also volunteered with SOS Children’s Village and helped to raise funds to be used to build a library that provide easy access to students without having to travel long distances.
Cecilia hopes to improve the Kenyan public school system by influencing government to introduce holistic education that allows for exploring one’s talents and passion. She believes this approach to education allows students to become more open-minded, improve communication skills, increase their efficiency, improve the quality of education as well as promote an all-inclusive environment for students to learn and develop as well-rounded agents of change. She also hopes to build an affordable hospital for residents of her community to tackle the problem of poor health care services. At UBC, she is confident that she’ll be able to create a network of people and resources to help her raise awareness for her causes.