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The STEMing Africa Initiative has launched a new online course “Stellar Applications for Graduate Studies” to guide candidates seeking to apply for scholarships and admission into graduate programs in STEM fields. See the video below for more details

ENROLL TODAY!!

Photo: Valentina Ndolo (Founder and Director, STEMing Africa Initiative)

My name is Valentina Ndolo. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate studying Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge. I am also the founder and director of the STEMing Africa Initiative, an organization that helps African women to apply for scholarships for graduate studies in STEM. For more on my background, click here.

About the initiative

The STEMing Africa Initiative is one of three programs that currently run under the Miles Scientiam Agency (MSA). MSA is a private consulting firm registered in Kenya that carries out educational consulting, academic mentorship, and entrepreneurship training tailored for young African women, to advance their education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. Our aim is to help the women not only to advance their education, but also develop social entrepreneurship skills that will help them to become STEM leaders and ambassadors. Our 3 main programs are:

The STEMing Africa Initiative
Female Ambassadors in STEM (FAS) Mentors Program
Social Entrepreneurship Award for Women Empowerment Programs (SEAWEP)

The STEMing Africa Initiative

The STEMing Africa Initiative (SAI) was founded to support bright and talented young women, with Bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields to secure admissions and scholarships for advanced studies (Masters and Ph.D.) at leading universities worldwide. The main objective of the program is to increase the number of leadership positions in STEM fields occupied by women in Kenya and across Africa.

Vision – To boost the participation, achievement, and continuation of women in STEM fields

Mission – To increase the number of women leaders in STEM fields, by supporting talented young women to secure scholarships for (under) graduate and postgraduate studies at leading universities worldwide.

Impact

Since its inception, 28 females have signed up. 15 women have secured admissions to top Universities of which 6 have full scholarships, and 3 ladies have completed their Masters degrees. We also proudly have 6 Female Ambassadors in Stem (FAS) mentors. Below is a list of some of the girls that have benefited from this organisation this year, the universities they got into, and the scholarship programs we were able to help them secure.

Emily Jelimo – London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Commonwealth Scholarship)
Faith Kamau – Jomo Kenyatta University (Scholarship from the African Union Commision)
Patricia Kiprono – Hebrew University
Bridget Ivy Otieno – Kanazawa University (Japanese Mext government scholarship)
Janet Kadiatu Jajua – University of Edinburgh (MasterCard Foundation Scholarship)

The Female Ambassadors in STEM (FAS) Mentors program

This program aims to encourage current mentees and alumni to provide mentorship sessions for girls in high schools within their local communities.

Photo: High school girls from St. Mary’s School in Narok participating in the 2019 Technovation Challenge as part of our FAS Mentors Program organized by Tabitha Alango.

The STEM Entrepreneurship Award for Women Empowerment Programs (SEAWEP)

Supports youth and alumni engaged in projects that promote the economic and social development of women in the community The FAS Mentors Program, as well as SEAWEP, are both community-based initiatives that fall under our CSR plan.

Awards and recognition

Photo: The 2018 Mandela Washington Fellowship at Rutgers University in New Jersey USA. The STEMing Africa Initiative has been recognized for its exceptional work and has, subsequently, been a recipient of several awards including:

Western Union Chain of Betters Campaign Award (June 2016)
FRIDA Feminist Award Finalist (February 2017)
McKinsey Next Generation Women Leaders Award Finalist (April 2017)
British Council Future Leaders Connect Finalist (June 2017)
Most Significant Change Story Award by UNESCO, FAWE, and ADEA (August 2017)
Mandela Washington Fellowship at Rutgers University in New Jersey (June 2018 to August 2018)

The Diagram Below shows holistic view of major activities and progress of the firm from the year it was founded up to this year. Twitter – Twitter Page

About

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Contact

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Programs

The STEMing Africa Initiative is one of three programs that currently run under the Miles Scientiam Agency (MSA). MSA is a private consulting firm registered in Kenya that carries out educational consulting, academic mentorship, and entrepreneurship training tailored for young African women, to advance their education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects. Our… Continue reading Programs

My name is Emily Jelimo Chepsat, a current beneficiary of the STEMing Africa Initiative. I joined the Initiative last year through an online application and a subsequent interview. My interest since childhood was in sciences. I pursued a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology at Kenyatta University and graduated top of my class with a First-Class honors degree. After completing my undergraduate course, I applied for an internship with the Kenya Medical Research Institute and the Wellcome Trust Programme.
Through a highly competitive process, I was successfully selected to be one of the Initiative to Develop young African research Leaders’ participant where we were taken through an 8-month intensive research program. Here I was exposed to immunology research and vast knowledge in research as a whole discipline. With time, my goal has been made clearer by the studies and experiences I have gone through. I would like to pursue health research and specifically malaria Immunology. The STEMing Africa initiative has helped me to gain immense skills necessary for successful scholarship applications.

The Initiatives’ support both physically and financially and through advice during the application has been of great help. Through the guidance and support of the STEMing Africa Initiative, I was able to secure a full Commonwealth Scholarship from the Department for International Development, UK, to pursue my Masters degree at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). https://twitter.com/StemingAfrica/status/989149079564439552 At LSHTM, I will study the Immunology of Infectious diseases. I highly appreciate the Initiatives’ unwavering support and I hope to give back to my community in whatever way I can.

Emily Chepsat

My name is Bridget Ivy Otieno. I am happy to have joined STEMing Africa Initiative as a mentee. I graduated in 2016 at the top of my class with first class honours in Biochemistry from the University of Nairobi. I am passionate about global healthcare challenges and women empowerment in the health sector. I am also motivated by the drive to change people’s lives in Africa through scientific research in drug development for diseases and advocacy for better healthcare policies. I interned at USA Medical Research Unit(USAMRU), where I am proud to be part of the team that put the first malaria vaccine in the world through its clinical trials. I worked previously as a project Trainee in Expert Marketing at GlaxoSmithKline Limited, one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies.

I joined STEMing Africa Initiative so as polish my applications for my Master’s degree. However, I have benefited from more than just scholarship applications. I have since joined Forum for African Women Educationalists-an organisation that empowers women from politically and economically deprived communities in Kenya. I was also offered a mentee opportunity at Africa Oxford Society- a mentorship programme for Oxford Applicants and other leading UK universities. I eventually accepted an offer for a MEXT Japanese Scholarship from the government of Japan to pursue an MSc in Virology at Kanazawa University’s Department of Viral Infection and International Health in Japan. My research project is based on the prevalence of enteric viruses in Kenyan Children infected with HIV.I also hope to do research on the socioeconomic determinants of HIV risk in Kenya.

https://twitter.com/StemingAfrica/status/989145264815566849