If there is anything getting a first class honours degree has given me, it is bragging rights! This being July, my graduating month, allow me to bask in this moment. The graduation ceremony is on Thursday the 28th, and so tomorrow(Wednesday) is rehearsal. Whenever I’ll be meeting my comrades (fellow graduands) I’ll wait for them to say “Second class, upper division honours” before pausing dramatically and saying “first class honours baby!”
I had dreamed of this blogpost over and over again. I had the perfect title for it: Yeah Baby, First Class Honours! I was going to put a picture of myself in the graduation cap and gown, starting straight into the camera, looking beautiful, solemn and intelligent at the same time. Ha well, dreams change!
Graduation gown, hood, cap
In the seven months since I finished my undergraduate degree in computer science (on Dec 17th, 2010), I have been up and about.
I spent most of the first 3 months of 2011 in Rwanda, where I worked with a small INGO in the Northern Province where I had the pleasure of meeting President Paul Kagame. I made many friends there, and when I get time I hope to go back and visit.
I came back to Kenya in mid-March and like most of my former classmates, asked myself what it was I really wanted to do. I applied for a number of jobs/internships and did one interview. I knew I wanted to travel and I later got an internship with a research institution based in Nairobi but with offices in Ethiopia and I was going to go there for a month. But then something else happened and I had to put that on hold.
I got a scholarship to do a master’s degree at the Safaricom Academy/Strathmore University, starting May this year. That’s what I’ve been up to. It’s a very hands-on kind of course, and I’m loving it.
The course is structured into modules (as opposed to semesters) and we’re currently in the second module. For the past one-an- half months, we had instructors from MIT/MIT-Sloan Business School who taught us both technical and business stuff. If you want to see what we were doing, check out this page. Our project is E-BIMA and we’re still in the early stages of development .
About a month ago, Google called me offering me a software engineering job, but because they realized I’m now back in school, they said an internship offer would still do, where I take 3 months off and then come back to continue my course. I have done two over-the-phone interviews, passed the first one and waiting to hear the results of the second one. If I get the internship it will be the icing on my graduation cake! The perfect graduation present.
I’ll be walking on sunshine during my graduation as my three names are called and I’m conferred with a first class honours degree in computer science.
Savvy Kenya in Japan 
Blessings blessings blessings. Count them and guard them jealously lil’ sis. May your life continue at this very pace!
Of course you have all the rights to have bragging rights and to brag about it!
I’ll be celebrating with you in spirit on Thursday. All the best.
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First class baby…….socks.
Congs Savvy. So proud of you
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Congrats, you sure are going places!
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Congratulations are in order! You will have your full three names called out. What a honor! 🙂 All the best.
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Congratulations on having all your names read out! You have license to shout it from the rooftops.
Also looks like your career is off to a flying start. All the best
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Savvy, you are one very blessed Lady. Congratulations. As for me, I look forward to the day I shall pass out If it shall ever happen as the devil stole my blessing 😦 aki pray for me guyz
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Savvy, you are one very blessed Lady. Congratulations. As for me, I look forward to the day I shall pass out If it shall ever happen as the devil stole my blessing 😦 aki pray for me guyz
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How awesome is this!! Congratulations on all you’ve achieved and I hope you get the google internship! That would be super cool.
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Congratulations!
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Felicitations! May all your dreams continue to come true and may the paths you seek, continue to open up. To use a cliche, the world is your oyster! You have worked hard and deserve all the rewards for that!
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To paraphrase President Obama’s commencement address at Hampton University:
But I have to say, you have a responsibility. To be a role model for your brother(s) and sister(s). To be a mentor in your community. And, when the time comes, to pass that sense of an education’s value down to your child(ren), a sense of personal responsibility and self-respect. To pass down a work ethic and an intrinsic sense of excellence that made it possible for you to be where you are today.
So, allowing you to compete in the global economy is the first way your education can prepare you. But it can also prepare you as a citizen. With so many voices clamoring for attention on blogs, and on cable, on talk radio, it can be difficult, at times, to sift through it all; to know what to believe; to figure out who’s telling the truth and who’s not. Let’s face it, even some of the craziest claims can quickly gain traction. I’ve had some experience in that regard.
Fortunately, you will be well positioned to navigate this terrain. Your education has honed your research abilities, sharpened your analytical powers, given you a context for understanding the world. Those skills will come in handy.
But the goal was always to teach you something more. Over the past four years, you’ve argued both sides of a debate. You’ve read novels and histories that take different cuts at life.
You’ve discovered interests you didn’t know you had. You’ve made friends who didn’t grow up the same way you did. You’ve tried things you’d never done before, including some things we won’t talk about in front of your parents.
All of this, I hope, has had the effect of opening your mind; of helping you understand what it’s like to walk in somebody else’s shoes. But now that your mind has been opened, it’s up to you to keep it that way. It will be up to you to open minds that remain closed that you meet along the way. That, after all, is the elemental test of any democracy: whether people with differing points of view can learn from each other, and work with each other, and find a way forward together.
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Madam si am proud of you!! Gosh! Getting First class honours, going to Rwanda, meeting Kagame, going to do a masters degree… all these in just a few months (except for the degree), I mean, I’m short of jealous here!! (I wonder if that’s English! Anyway)
Its such a great thing to see someone grow into their career…. and love it!
Happy for you. I really am.
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Congrats, Savvy. That’s a major achievement. Enjoy the festive mood before you start looking for a job. 🙂
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Congrats missy. You deserve the best!
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You are one amazing gal. Congrats again my dear girl.
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Congrats Savvy! Great journey you’re on
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Congratulating you my dear. You are exemplary and seem to be headed for the stars, keep up
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Congrats Savvy, sky is the limit…
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Congratulations! keep pushing!
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Congratulations on your big day. There are many people reading this who are greatly inspired by your many achievements in such a short time. Thanks and best wishes Savvy!
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Many many many congratulations! You deserve all the joy and success and of course, bragging rights!
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Wow sweetie brag all the way to the BANK…you’ve worked hard and now you’ve been given the power to read some more.
I’m proud of you
ve been given the power to read some more.
I’m proud of you
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congrats my dear friend, am so happy for you…
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Congrats Missy! I wish you the very best in life… Keep it up 🙂
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Congratulations on the 1st class honors 🙂 that is a huge fete *pats you on your back*
I am sure you have that google job in the bag, do not even worry for you, but meanwhile i have my fingers crossed for you 🙂
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congratulations, you of all people deserve it, and i hope you graduate with similar distinctions in ur masters.
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Congrats
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Belated congratulations…
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If i were you, i would be back-flipping all the way to google. Anyways, i’m halfway through campus. I need your advices because i am so opening my own ‘oh yeah, 1st class baby!’ blog end of 2013 september. Please help me.
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Here’s what I learned in campus; it might help. Now go do it!
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Congratulations. Count yourself under massive God’s favor too because I also recently graduated (last July) with First class honors in Disaster management and International diplomacy, but i’m still jobless. I am happy and proud of you. Go gal!
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Congratulations too, Gakii! Don’t worry, you’ll get a job soon, just keep an eye out on the relevant channels. You go too, I’m sure you’ll achieve much!
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