My name is Joyce Bor. I am a Kenyan international student studying at Bowdoin College. I am in my third year now, majoring in Physics and minoring in Mathematics. I came to the United States in 2018, and it has been a very educative experience. I have learnt so much about culture, the global community, and even myself. I feel as if I am just at the start of my educational career, even though I have been at it for the past 18 years. I know for sure that I will keep studying after earning my Bachelor’s degree, and hopefully I will achieve all the things I dream about and work for. I was born in Kericho, a town in the Rift Valley Province in Kenya. It is known for growing tea and for its rainy weather. I have not been home for almost two years now, and the familiarity I feel with the place is what I miss the most. My parents both worked in Kericho. My father is a retired civil and agricultural engineer who worked for one of the tea companies in the town. From everything I remember, my father has worked every day of his life to support us. Even now, he still has tea, potato and onion farms. He also has dairy cows right behind our house. He has inspired me by doing everything he could to put 9 children through school. My mother, whom I love and who has taught me everything I know and has been a role model, has also made her way in the world. She left her secretary job in a college to take care of my siblings and I. I have 6 biological siblings, and two of my cousins (really brothers at this point) have been with us for as long as I can remember. My mother took care of all of us while my father went to work. Financially, my family has always struggled. What inspires me, though, is that my parents never resented working however hard they had to for us. My mother recently started working on her business as soon as we were all able to be away from home for school. This woman put everything she had into every opportunity she saw, and now works as a caterer for events held by the same company that employed my father. The reason I mention my parents is because they taught me that I could achieve anything I put my mind to. My father took me to factories a lot to show me around, and I fell in love with the machinery and the processing that took the raw tea leaves and ground them into a palatable form. I started reading some of my father’s engineering books, and by the time I was in the 11th grade, I knew what I wanted to do. I watched a lot of documentaries about processing and manufacturing factories and growing infrastructure in different countries, and noticed a stark difference between my country and almost every other country that was represented. Kenya is a young country. We declared independence in 1963, and since then, we have been trying to catch up with other countries. We are a developing country, and although there are people who are doing their best to develop the country, there is so much left to do and not enough resources. I have always been supported by my community. In Kenya, the village literally raises everyone. During my farewell party, as I was about to come to Bowdoin, a lot of people (even people I just knew of) showed up to support me. I received from even those who had nothing. There were only good intentions from everyone, and that day, I promised myself that I would do everything I could to give back to them. I am now working towards an undergraduate degree in Physics which will hopefully lead to a Master’s degree program. I have done everything I can to create a rapport with almost everyone in the Physics department. I am also currently working on a research project with my professor, who also happens to be my advisor. We are working on a way to deactivate viruses on surgical masks using UV irradiation. We have been working on it for almost a year now, and it is being published step my step. This has become an integral part of my experience at Bowdoin. Knowing that this will help people in underprivileged places whenever there is a shortage of masks encourages me even more towards my goal. I want to become one of the people who will improve the standards of infrastructure and ensure everyone has access to facilities such as hospitals and schools. I would be so humbled to be a part of the building of Kenya.