Kenyan students excel as engineers in the US

The image of a tall, slender teenage boy captured in a camera by journalists in a swimming pool in 2006 is still clear. James Rotich from Moi High School Kabarak was the top student in the country during the 2005 KCSE exam.

James knew from an early age what he wanted to become, but his father had a different opinion. “My father wanted me to become a doctor, but I wanted to pursue engineering,” he says.

“I did not want to disappoint him, so we struck a deal that if I got to study in Kenya, I would study medicine, but if I got admitted to a US university, I would pursue engineering.” James was admitted to MIT and, therefore, beat his father in the bargain.

James was among the youngest students who joined MIT in 2006. The soft-spoken software engineer graduated from MIT in 2011 and joined Oracle as an applications engineer, where he worked for six years.

He later joined Nunatix, a software company specializing in cloud computing. “I was looking for more challenges to apply my skills, and Nunatix offered me the opportunity to be more creative.”

James is a man of few words. He says his major struggle in college was to keep at the top. “It was hard to adjust from being among the best students in Kenya to sometimes struggling to get a good grade.”

Like his friends, James advises students aspiring to study in the US to start preparing early with the standardized tests (SATs) and to ask for help when admitted. “Things might be a bit difficult at the beginning, but people here are generally helpful. One should never hesitate to ask for help.”

Asked what is the one thing he would change about his decision, he said, “I would not change anything, except maybe study harder!”

Originally published at https://www.the-star.co.ke on May 4, 2020.