Part 2: Blooming Where Planted

My brother Paddy enrolled at the University of Nairobi (UoN) in September 2005 to pursue a degree in medicine & surgery. He so distinguished himself in his first year that he was selected to study an accelerated degree in anatomy which he graduated with first class honors in December 2008.

I came across here at home the thesis that Paddy wrote for his anatomy degree. And wa! It was larded with medical jargon that rendered it incomprehensible to a layman like me. I'd consider Paddy a genius if he still remembers a fraction of the jargon he used in the thesis.

Now, Paddy had a high regard for UoN. He once informed us during a family meeting in 2008 that schooling at UoN is the same as schooling at Harvard. And in 2010 when I was a freshman at UoN, he warned me that the university exams are not easy.

Paddy's high regard for UoN must be the reason he bloomed at the university even though his high school desire was to pursue his undergraduate studies overseas. He really wanted to attend such prestigious universities as MIT and John Hopkins.

Come to think of it, Paddy was right in saying that schooling at UoN is the same as schooling at Harvard. And I hasten to add not just UoN but every other accredited Kenyan university.

I know of some people who graduated from local universities and won scholarships to pursue post-graduate courses at such renowned universities as Oxford and Harvard. And some local undergraduates have emerged winners in international contests, trouncing competitors from more globally recognized universities.

Recently, I went through a colorful prospectus of Washington University in St. Louis, one of the finest institutions of higher learning in America. And you know what? I noted that the same companies which seek graduates from that university are the same companies which seek graduates from local universities. Companies like PwC, KPMG, Deloitte, CitiGroup and McKinsey.

That makes me wonder why I was so obsessed with studying in America during my days at JKUAT, a local university where I dropped out of an engineering degree in 2009. Being rejected for the third time by the American colleges I applied for admission in 2009 was what led me to enrol at UoN in 2010.

JKUAT was actually a splendid university in my time. It had adequate learning resources and reputable firms employed some of its graduates. My kid brother Symo attended JKUAT where he studied financial engineering and a year after graduating, he landed a job at KPMG, one of the Big Four auditing firms.

I would therefore like to advise youngsters that they can bloom in life regardless of the university they are attending, so long as it is chartered. They can become charismatic leaders, budding entrepreneurs or best-selling authors after graduating from a little-known community college. It is positive qualities like hard work and resilience that matter.

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RECOMMENDATION: If you've enjoyed the above part 2 story on blooming where planted, you might also enjoy part 1 of the story. Just click on that link in blue to dive straight into the story.