My resolve earned me a scholarship....
by Brenda Munyui
The desire to give back and make the society a better place
through education and empowerment has been my major
motivation to pursue academia. I am very enthusiastic about
being a PhD candidate in Curriculum and Instruction at Florida
State University Instruction where I am specializing in Foreign
and Second Language education. My academic journey has
been greatly influenced and shaped by my parents, my
siblings, my husband, our son, my mentors and great scholars
and professors that I have been privileged to work with. I
greatly appreciate their selfless support, encouragement,
stewardship and criticism right from elementary school to my
current rising third year PhD candidate status.
I was placed at Jackson State University. Teaching American
students was challenging but because I wanted to be a better
teacher, I applied for a Master’s degree in Modern Languages
at the University of Mississippi. Even though the institution
offered me partial scholarship for the 1st academic year, I was
determined to enroll since it had a program that best fit my
interest. Before the end of the 1st semester, the Department
Chair mentioned to me and my husband (who was also pursuing his masters in the same department) that he wanted us to
start the Swahili language and culture program. This was a
major financial breakthrough as I could have my fees paid and
receive a monthly stipend to cover some living expenses.
My adventure began at Matunda Primary School in Bondeni a
tiny village in Western Kenya. It is through my learning
difficulties in primary school which included; overcrowded
classrooms, lack of resources, poor pedagogy and heavy
reliance on corporal punishment especially the use of rods that
I decided to be a teacher and make the learning environment
student-centered and safe. After completing my Kenya
Certificate of Primary Examination. I was admitted into the
prestigious Lugulu High School. Our class motto which was
and still my driving force is ‘delight in fulling the purpose
despite the price.’
After the 1st year of the Master’s program, I started applying
for PhD admissions. It took several weeks to identify universities with programs that matched my interests. I knew that
scholarships for PhD studies are limited, so I decided to apply
in different programs.I remember going through the list of
programs with my husband several times and it was not easy to
make the final decision on the school to apply to. Before my
Master’s graduation, I had received 5 PhD admissions with 3
universities that are in the top 100 in world ranking. The major
challenge was funding since only one of the universities I was
admitted to offer full funding. Unfortunately, this is the only
university that my husband did not get accepted to since he
was also looking to pursue his PhD. With that, I had to decline
the offer. The lack of funding prospects made me feel as if my
future was being shattered.
My dream was to join Kenyatta University upon completion of
high school. I settled to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Education Arts. Upon completion of my bachelor’s I was awarded a
Fulbright scholarship to teach Swahili in America while
pursuing advanced education.
IDEA DIAPORA 44
In the summer of 2013 I was preoccupied with searching for