My two siblings and I were raised by a single mom. For a lot of my childhood, I was raised by my grandmother since my mom went to school to become a special needs teacher. We moved multiple times to be able to afford the cost of living and to be able to go to school. We lived in Nairobi, Kenya. Nairobi means “city of fresh water,” but, unlike that pleasant name, were I lived there was a lot of violence, poverty, hunger, and police brutality. There was also violence within my home. When I was 9 years old my father tried to kill my family by burning down our house. I was sleeping, and my older brother saved my life which resulted in him receiving severe burns. We left my father after that and never returned to him. My mom always pushed my siblings and I to get a good education. It was the way out of our poverty and difficult life. Being an international student has been both challenging and eye-opening. Aside from school, learning about a different culture and seeing a different side of the world has made me appreciate diversity more. My biggest goal is to make a change in the country where I came from. There’s a lot of talent and opportunity in Kenya. I’m a part of an organization called Engineers Without Borders. They do a lot of charity work to provide things like wells for clean water, electricity, and school buildings. I’d like to continue to work with them to give back to my home country.

Why are you thinking of engineering as a career path? Growing up I never really wanted to be an engineer. I wanted to be an Air Force pilot, but my eyesight was too poor. I decided that if I couldn’t fly the airplanes, I would learn to make them. My older brother is an electrical engineer. He inspired me to pursue engineering. He would sometimes get in trouble for tearing things apart to see how they worked. I also love to figure out how things work. I decided to go into Mechanical Engineering. I see that almost everything that exists has Mechanical Engineers behind it like cars, airplanes. I like the broad scope of Mechanical Engineering. Electrical Engineering is limited to just working with electrical systems. Mechanical Engineer can go into designing systems, manufacturing systems, robotics, etc.… I’m thinking of working with Engineers without Borders. I can use my experience and skills to help others better their lives. Engineers without Boarders do a lot of charity work in places where there are few resources. They provide things like wells for clean water, electricity, and school buildings. They go to a lot of poorer countries in Africa and Asia. They go where help is needed to build projects and train local people to continue to maintain the systems they built. I would like to contribute my knowledge and skills as a member of their organization to work toward accomplishing their mission. What sort of hands-on engineering experience have you participated in thus far? I’ve done a lot of things. In 2020 when I finished my associate’s in engineering, I was fortunate enough to land a job with a power supply manufacturing company whose main role is providing rectifiers for the plating industry. My main responsibility at the company was the inspection of these power supplies. This included troubleshooting, testing, quality inspection, and processing orders with customers. In the summer of 2022, I did an internship in Eau Claire, WI. I worked with a truss manufacturing company. My role was working with a group of engineers where we installed robotic manufacturing systems that were both efficient and high quality. These systems ensured minimum human error as well as interaction, therefore proving to be a great investment for the company. We built the system from the ground up; this involved electrical wiring, soldering, and welding. I was also responsible for documentation, and schematic drawing. I also did some training at this location to teach the maintenance crew how to perform basic repairs on the robots. Please mention if your hands-on experience is part of your co-op engineering program. My hands-on experience went hand-in-hand with my co-op engineering program. Basically, it revolved around the automation of systems. With an understanding of ladder logic programming, robotic code writing and operation, my hands-on experience set a basic foundation which was perfected and enhanced more during my co-op engineering program. Also, my experience in electric power supply testing and manufacturing increased my knowledge of electrical components and their functioning. Robots are made with different mechanical as well as electrical parts. Therefore, working with power supplies was partly linked to my co-op experience.

My two siblings and I were raised by a single mom. For a lot of my childhood I was raised by my grandmother since my mom went to school to become a special needs teacher. We moved multiple times to be able to afford the cost of living and to be able to go to school. We lived in Nairobi, Kenya. Nairobi means “city of fresh water,” but, unlike that pleasant name, were I lived there was a lot of violence, poverty, hunger, and police brutality. There was also violence within my home. When I was 9 years old my father tried to kill my family by burning down our house. I was sleeping, and my older brother saved my life which resulted in him receiving severe burns. We left my father after that and never returned to him. My mom always pushed my siblings and I to get a good education. It was the way out of our poverty and difficult life. Growing up I lost a lot of friends to violence. Much of the violence stemmed from desperate poverty. My life experiences have taught me that my past doesn’t dictate my future. Education is my opportunity to not repeat the mistakes of previous generations and friends. Coming to the US is giving me a chance to get a good education in Engineering to be able to better my life. My mom is my biggest inspiration. She is the only one from her family to get much of an education. She grew up in extreme poverty. She attended a Catholic that was miles away from her home. Every day she made the trek to and from school on foot. After we left the abusive situation with my father, she went back to school to become a special needs teacher. At that time my siblings and I were young. She worked hard providing for us and getting her own education. Seeing her overcome all those challenges is the driving force behind my goals in education. It gives me hope that I can overcome any challenges I face. My biggest goal is to make a change in the country where I came from. There’s a lot of talent and opportunity in Kenya. I’m a part of an organization called Engineers Without Borders. They do a lot of charity work to provide things like wells for clean water, electricity, and school buildings. I’d like to continue to work with them to give back to my home country.