Greetings!

My name is Marclus Marite. I am an alumnus of Nova Pioneer Tatu Boys (Class of 2022) and an incoming freshman at The California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

After sitting for my K.C.S.E, I spent most of my time at home, anxiously awaiting my results. As expected, I achieved an outstanding A, scoring 83 out of 84 points. However, what I did not anticipate was being recognized as one of the top students nationwide! This incredible honor opened doors to numerous opportunities and profoundly shaped the trajectory of my life.

Shortly after receiving my results, I was invited to join the Equity Leaders Program (ELP), a prestigious initiative designed for Kenya’s top-performing students. I underwent an intensive two-week induction at Sportsview Kasarani before interning as a corporate teller at Equity Bank’s Kenyatta University branch for seven months. During this period, I also participated in college counseling provided by ELP.

In October 2023, I took the SAT and achieved an impressive score of 1500/1600. That same month, I enrolled at the University of Nairobi to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture. Unfortunately, my college applications abroad were unsuccessful, and I did not secure admission anywhere. However, what seemed like a setback turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This experience reignited my determination and strengthened my resolve to navigate the grueling application process once more.

With renewed clarity and motivation, I applied to top U.S. universities in November 2024. In March 2025, my perseverance finally bore fruit. By God’s grace, I was accepted to both the California Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), each offering me full funding.

I am honored to be attending Caltech this fall, where I plan to major in Applied and Computational Mathematics and later explore the field of Quantitative Finance.

 

 

Hey Novaneers!

My name is Lisa Mukoya Ochieng, a proud alumna of Nova Pioneer Tatu Girls (Class of 2022) and an incoming freshman at Princeton University, New Jersey—still very much undecided on my major, but leaning towards something STEM (or maybe humanities? Who knows, we’ll see). 

Nova Pioneer played a huge role in shaping my journey, thanks to the incredible teammates who supported me every step of the way in high school. Special thanks to Mr. Otaka for guiding me through the application process and writing my counselor recommendation letter, and to Mrs. Melvin and Mr. Opiyo for their amazing subject recommendation letters. I’m deeply grateful.

After completing my K.C.S.E in December 2022, I spent my time at home waiting for results while working on coding projects (because what else do you do when you have way too much free time?). Then came January 2023, K.C.S.E results day. I was expecting good news, but I was still completely shocked when I saw my score: an A of 83/84 points, making me one of the top students in the country and the top girl in Ruiru Sub-county.

With those results, I was selected to join the Equity Leadership Program, which mentors top students countrywide into future leaders. During an intensive two-week job induction camp, we were trained on financial literacy, banking operations, fraud detection, and professional skills. After that, I began a six-month internship as a Relationship Officer at Equity Bank, Embakasi Branch. Alongside my internship, I joined the Equity College Counseling Program, where I prepared for the SAT, crafted my essays, and built my college applications.

I took my first SAT on August 23rd, 2023, scoring 1430/1600 (760 Math, 670 English). While I performed well in Math, the English section proved to be a challenge.

Around this time, I also joined the Kenya Robotics Team as the Assistant Team Captain and began working on building a robot for the FIRST Global Challenge in Singapore. The experience was incredible! I got hands-on with computer-aided design (CAD), deepened my knowledge of Java programming, and truly immersed myself in the world of robotics.

Then came the dreaded college application season, and let’s just say, it was brutal. I applied to 20 colleges in the US, and every single one of them rejected me. 20 out of 20. It felt like the universe had a vendetta against me, but deep down, I knew I couldn’t give up. I also explored other opportunities and was later awarded the full Türkiye Bursları Government Scholarship to study Computer Science at Ankara University. It was an amazing opportunity, but I took a massive risk and declined it to chase my American dream one more time.

Determined to improve my chances, I retook the SAT on October 5th, 2024. My English score went up, but Math decided to betray me that day (1380/1600—710 English, 670 Math). With a superscore of 1470, I still felt it wasn’t competitive enough, so I ultimately applied test-optional (without submitting my SAT scores).

This time, everything changed.

On March 27th, at exactly 2:07 a.m., I got the acceptance letter. “Congratulations!” My first-ever acceptance. And not just anywhere. Princeton University. The #1 ranked university in the U.S. offering me full funding. God came through for me!

I still got 10 rejections this cycle, but honestly? It doesn’t even matter. My American dream came true. I’m still in shock, but I know these next four years are going to be incredible.

To anyone out there chasing big dreams, keep going. Rejection is just redirection. Your moment is coming! And most importantly, trust in God. His timing is always perfect.

 

Our mission at Nova Pioneer is to develop a generation of innovators and leaders who will shape the African century. In order to achieve this we strive to ensure that our students develop strong connections with the world and with themselves.

Mark Paterson, a professor in sociology believes that nothing instills learning more than traveling the world and accumulating experiences and in support of this philosophy for this month’s post we feature our very own Andrew Mungai a form 3 student in our Tatu Boys high school who was part of a group of students that travelled from Kenya to one of our schools in South Africa for a 1 week exchange program in September 2023. 

We got to ask Andrew a couple of questions to get a feel of his experience and below you will be immersed into the virtual reality that was his experience. Enjoy!

 

Briefly explain what the exchange program is about?

The program is designed to give Kenyan students an opportunity to build connections with the South African students thus allowing them to gain first hand experience on the similarities and differences between Nova Pioneer schools in both regions. 

The image above portrays our visit to the military history museum where we got to see the weapons that were used to fight for independence gained in 1994.

 

How would you say the exchange program impacted you?

The exchange program helped me discover that I would like to pursue my higher education in one of the aviation schools in South Africa. 

As you can see in the image above my fellow students and I had just attended a Business Studies lesson in South Africa and we had the opportunity to give the Dean of Instruction and Learning who couples up as a Business Studies teacher feedback as is our Novaneer culture on our take of the lesson. During the feedback session we also had a chance to discuss available career opportunities in South Africa based on competitive pay and career progression.

 

What did you enjoy most about the exchange program?

Bungee Jumping at Soweto Towers which is a location where Costa Tich, a dearly departed South African artist shot a video for one of his songs. This image portrays some of the art at Soweto Towers and it was so exciting to engage in activities outside the classroom.

 

Is there anything about the South African culture that you found intriguing?

The classroom culture in both regions is similar. Outside the classroom, South Africa owns a lot of supercars and in their culture they do not take off their shoes while getting inside the house. To sum up the trip below are additional memories that we created with the students in South Africa.

 

Life is an unpredictable journey, often leading us on unexpected paths that shape our futures in profound ways. In this series of alumni spotlight, let us turn our attention to Shakira Mwakitawa, a remarkable alumnus of our Tatu City Girls School, class of 2020. She is currently a Civil Engineering major sophomore at the University of St. Thomas.

 

 

Career Pathway

What began as a traditional academic pursuit took a turn into unchartered territories ultimately redefining Shakira’s professional trajectory.  In High School, Shakira was a Gold Key student. We were very inspired by her artistic expression in painting. In fact, in 2021 she ran a business called Sunnysideupke, an online art business that supported her friend and Novaneer classmate Jeanne Sere to donate sanitary pads to a centre in Kibera.

After pursuing her high school education, she applied for the alumni internship program at Nova Pioneer where she joined the Marketing team as the Content Creation Intern. Curating content for the Nova Pioneer Kenya social media handles was a project that she enjoyed doing. Her dedication, innate flair for innovation, and creative ideas contributed to her success in that role.  She held this position for close to a year before joining University. This experience bolstered her portfolio and enabled her to continue engaging in the social media space as a student assistant at the University of St. Thomas.

When she joined the university, she enrolled in an environmental studies course but switched to Civil Engineering due to an interest in urban planning and landscape architecture. With each lecture, project, and discussion Shakira has expressed that she finds herself increasingly drawn to the world of Civil Engineering, its challenges, and possibilities igniting a new fire within.

 

Personal Scoop

During her free time, Shakira enjoys watching  Netflix and reading African literature. She enjoyed reading  “Havoc of Choice,” authored by Wanjiru Koinange. A book that she highly recommends for all who find reading engaging. 

 

The Nova Pioneer effect

Shakira felt prepared for the professional and university environment because of the Nova Pioneer culture that challenged her to set high expectations, grow from every challenge, and defined her as a Novaneer. She learned to structure her time when she was in High School. She expressed that she had support from her teachers notably Mr. Godfrey Otaka and Ms. Margaret, that helped her in her journey from being shy and reserved in opinion to being confident and outgoing in nature.

If you want to find out more about how we prepare our Novaneers to create their future, take a moment to click here and get scheduled for one of our Campus Experiences.

 

After settling down to have a chat with Mr. Rodgers Achoki (class of 2019), it was easy for me to see how teacher-student mentorship has had a positive impact on his career choice. As a final year student at Lukenya University where Rodgers is enrolled in their Bachelor of Commerce -Finance programme he is excited to soon be joining the working class bracket where he hopes to make an impact in the finance, business, and economics sector.

As a current intern with Nova Pioneer’s Finance team, Rodgers has had the opportunity to work on billing, fulfilment of purchase orders, payments, and allocation of receipts and invoices. Rodgers is more proficient in the Accounts Receivable pathway and hopes to someday grow his skills in Accounts Payable. All the same, he sees himself working in just anything within the field of finance. This is not his first internship experience. As a Form 3 student at Nova Pioneer- Tatu City boys campus, Rodgers got the opportunity, through the school’s Post School Success team, to intern at The Nairobi Hospital, allowing him to build his portfolio and expand his view across different industries within his career choice.

 

Mentorship

 

Why Finance? Rodgers attributes his Finance option to his high school business teacher, Mr. Raphael Abucheri, who currently serves as the Dean of Learning and Instruction at Nova Pioneer’s Boys campus in Tatu City. In Rodger’s words, “ Mr. Abucheri motivated me to love business and spurred me on in my interests. He was also my mentor and accountability partner.” When I inquired whether there were any regrets for taking Business as a pathway, Rodgers was quick to respond that if he had to pick a university course choice again,  he would pick the exact same thing. As much as he is a business and number nut, Rodgers also holds a candle for Biology which he grew to love and enjoy due to the diligent facilitation of Ms. Brenda Ogutu who was his high school Biology teacher and also a mentor who inspired him to soar.

 

Within Finance

 

In Finance, Rodgers is responsible for assisting where needed by teammates in the Kenyan and South Africa Finance team which gives him a vast resource library as he gets to enjoy a diverse experience. Additionally, he has done billing, fulfilment of purchase orders, payments and allocation of receipts and invoices. From this, he has derived that he is more proficient in the Accounts Receivable pathway as he knows more and finds it easier. Not one to give up he says he will grow from his safe space here and eventually venture into Accounts Payable. All the same, he sees himself working in just anything within the field of finance. On further prodigy, he felt that probably a bank would be an experience he would like to savour. As he reflects on his experiences as part of the Finance team, he is glad to be getting a taste of what he can expect in life in Finance. He has received feedback that will help him grow and has built muscle around seeking assistance when needed as the learning never stops in the spirit of #JoyofLearning and #AlwaysGrowing.

 

The Nova Pioneer Effect

 

Rodgers believes that he had been at a crossroads when it came to picking between Business studies and Biology post-high school but he received support from his mentors to make the right choice for him, something he is grateful for. To spice things up, Rodgers and I discussed our culture principles at Nova Pioneer and took a glance at which principle he feels he does not associate with so strongly. He picked high expectations because he always feels like it adds a huge layer of anxiety and pressure for him and it is mostly externally influenced and does not take into account what it takes to meet these expected levels of performance. He says that he likes to be in control and as such will push himself to achieve his own expectations or do better than them.

As a final touch goodbye, he said that Nova Pioneer was a good place, a friendly environment with interactive people and he feels like it is the best place to learn or work at. If this draws your heartstrings, follow the link here to attend an Open Day and join our big, wide, and growing community.

 

On the 21st of June I had the pleasure to speak with Mr. John Nderitu who is currently the Global Alumni Coordinator at Nova Pioneer. My first natural question to John was, “Who are you and what do you do?”. In his own words, he describes himself as a student at the University of Nairobi in their Construction Management programme, a son, class representative, construction manager, Nova Pioneer alumnus and the Organising Secretary for the Construction Management course at the University of Nairobi. John’s current passion lies within construction because he enjoys the process and the vigour. 

 

Now that we know a little bit about John, we can dive into today’s subject matter; the experiences that John has had the pleasure of living through, the opportunities he had as a Nova Pioneer student, an intern at the organisation and now as a fulltime teammate.

 

Strong Culture

As an alumnus, John describes the culture instilled in the community as one that has allowed him to learn how to collaborate at the workplace and grow with others. He also feels that it has contributed to his positive growth as the CRESA organizing secretary which is a pro bono position that he enjoys and is grateful for. He has learnt the essence of scheduling and collaborative plenary. The skill of networking has also enabled him to engage with others, offering him opportunities most at his age never get to experience. There is also a keen focus on self development, and growth feedback sessions.

 

Connection

Because Nova Pioneer believes and invests in ensuring its students are connected to each other, experiences and opportunities, it was a natural transition for John to join the Learning Design team as an intern when he completed his K.C.S.E in 2019.  interest in seeing the backend of lesson design and the opportunities to give back to the Novaneer community as an intern was dear to him. His choice to join the Learning Design team is based on how crucial the work the team does is to the direct impact it has on students’ learning and outcomes. He wanted to be at the core of what makes learning at Nova Pioneer different, having experienced the unique learning model himself, as a former student. 

For John the opportunity within Learning and Design was very constructive. The belief that failure is and growth from it is acceptable and the opportunity to always call for help when you need it. He has had the uniquely distinct pleasure of working as an intern within Learning and Design for three different cycles. He really enjoyed the STEM department especially the practical versus theory and this was also compounded by his passion for the sciences which he carried forward from his high school experience. He may have evolved from sciences to construction but he is just as passionate about opportunities in this field. His successes were also facilitated by working with kind people who allowed him to flourish despite the age difference. 

John’s final words are, “ I am grateful to the Novaneer community for the opportunities accorded to me and to helping shape me into who I am today. I believe that the impact will live on”.

Do you want to learn more about the role Nova Pioneer’s Learning Design team plays in delivering our unique learning model across our 16 schools in Kenya and South Africa? Do you want to hear more stories on the impact our alumni are making across the globe? Join our next open day by filling out this form.

Earlier this year, the opportunity to apply for the Watson Institute Accelerator Program was posted in the Post School Success(PSS) Google Classroom by Misco (Post School Success Manager). At the same time being in the Ashoka network, it was shared in a WhatsApp group that we have.

The Watson Semester Accelerator is a program for college students, recent graduates, and gap-year students with an early-stage social venture/project and a passion for social impact.

 

Bringing SMILES to the world

 

I have a strong passion for social entrepreneurship and I saw this as the best space to take my venture, Smiles, to the next level. It seemed like the perfect thing to do after high school as I waited to join university and so I was so excited and dove right into drafting my essays. Little did I know that COVID-19 had other plans.

My social venture, smiles focuses on reusing and recycling clothes. Through identifying this need, I began collecting old uniforms and clothes from peers and converting them into other garments or simply donating them to the needy. Last year, I collected a total of 600 kilograms of clothes and shoes from peers.

 

Applying for the Watson Accelerator Program

 

I shared my essays with some of my closest friends for feedback and later gave them to Misco from PSS and Bryan from Ashoka for further review. It was very constructive feedback however I realized that I was not ready to apply so in April I decided to shelf my application. Also given that we had a pandemic it discouraged me to continue.

I, therefore, took the pandemic as an opportunity to build Smiles and as I continued, the more I fell in love with the idea of learning skills to take really take it to the next level. Literally, on the date of the deadline, I polished up the drafts I had with the feedback I had received. The only reason I sent in my application was so that I would not regret and have the constant thought of ‘what if’.

 

Receiving the good news

 

On the same day I sent in my application, I received my acceptance email. I could not believe my eyes because it was literally five hours since I had pressed submit on that application! After telling my family they were so excited but my mind still could not comprehend it, to add on that I received a very generous scholarship and I felt as though things were moving so fast. Less than a week later, it finally dawned on me when we had our first orientation session.

 

Building Connections

 

It is a fully virtual program but that still has not stopped us from building really strong connections with fellow scholars from around the world. We have sessions every day that run from 8 am – 10 am MT which is 5 pm to 7 pm for me.

In addition to this, we have asynchronous content that is sent before the lesson which really cultivated self-discipline because you are the one in charge of your learning. Every Friday we have Master courses where someone experienced in the field of social entrepreneurship shares words of wisdom on how their journey has been. My favourite thing is that we have all been assigned two mentors who advise you and walk with you on your journey which is so amazing because no man is an island.

There is so much I have learnt but the most outstanding is that how much I grow and learn from life is fully dependent on the effort that I put in it. Nothing comes easy, you really have to get your hands and get dirty. It has been particularly interesting feeding off the wisdom of my fellow scholars because I am the youngest one.

I hope to come out of this having formed a strong network of people who I can learn from and even learn from each other. In addition to this, I desire to have the skills to start other social impact projects as I move through life and lead a life of impact.

Written by Jeanne Sere (Form Four student at Nova Pioneer Girls’ High School, Tatu City)

 

Just as most of us have had to adjust ourselves to these uncertain times, YYAS (Yale Young African Scholars) has not been an exception. YYAS – was supposed to be my opportunity to meet other Africans who are passionate about our continent as well as their respective countries, and to share ideas and interact with new people from very diverse backgrounds. Even though we had to have our session online due to the pandemic, I have still learned so much and had an unforgettable experience.

 

Applying for YYAS

 

My friend Esther Wachira, had the chance to attend YYAS in 2019. From all the great stories she told me, coupled with her experience, I knew that I too would love such an experience, and thought, why not give it a try. I did my research through their website to learn more about the program and the application process and requirement and from there I began the application process. 

The essay questions were not only thought-provoking but also super fun. One asked about our favourite fictional character, the second asked us what in our country’s history we would change and the other, which was my favourite, asked us to write on a rumour about our country and whether we agree or disagree with it.

It was a bit challenging trying to think about the rumour question but the best part was finding and settling on a topic about Kenya and from there, writing a 500-word essay even felt limiting. I also had help from one of the school Post School Success mentors who read my essays over and over and helped me articulate my thoughts in a much concise way. It was a tough process but worth it in the end.

On 9th April I opened my email from YYAS. “Congratulations! I am thrilled to offer you admission…” I saw those words and started to jump all over the house and I cried because I really couldn’t believe it! That was probably one of my highest moments in this quarantine period. I called my number one cheerleader and classmate Chelsy, who was there for me throughout the application process. Let’s just say she sounded like she was more excited than I was!

 

Finding a balance 

 

A live program is obviously much better than an online one, but it was well planned either way in order to give us the YYAS experience despite the current pandemic. Additionally, I had exams at the same time as the program, which meant juggling between both. An online program also meant that we had shorter sessions and we weren’t able to have too many interactions if we were going to get all the information YYAS had to offer. We were sent materials to familiarize ourselves with the program content before it started. 

During the program, we had two types of sessions, the seminars and group sessions. I especially loved the group sessions because that’s when we got to talk in smaller groups and get to know each other better. I met so many passionate people. People who are aware of the issues happening around them; people who wanted to help bring positive change to their communities; people who were not afraid to confront the challenges that we face as Africans and provide solutions to those problems.

 

Valuable lessons

 

“If we are the ones we’ve been waiting for, why are we still waiting?” This is a statement that stood out for me. It was from a video on Leadership, by Africa Matters. It is a call to us the youth to begin being changemakers and to stop waiting and just start doing whatever we can, however, we can, to impact Africa. Another perception that changed for me was my view on applying to universities in America. Previously, during our Post School Success sessions, I was clear that I was not going to go to the US to study, but now some of its schools are among the top five on my list. 

 

All in all, YYAS gave me an opportunity to learn more about myself as well as pushed me to be better. It encouraged me to start thinking about what I can do now to help my community while equipping me with the skills I would need to do so. Lastly, I loved the people I met and enjoyed learning about all those different cultures and sharing my own. I got to expand my network and make friends for life from all over Africa. YYAS was great and I highly recommend it!

 

Join us

 

Interested in enrolling your child at Nova Pioneer? Click down below to apply