Gloria’s Story: An inside look at life as an Akili Dada intern

By Gloria Sang, Akili Dada scholarship beneficiary currently enrolled in medical school in Kenya. Gloria wrote this post during her internship at the Akili Dada offices in Nairobi from June to October of 2011. 

“It is 6:00a.m. in the morning and my alarm goes off. I need to wake up and go to work. I am only eighteen years old and I already have a job! It feels really good to have my own desk, a computer, work to do and responsibilities to handle. I am an intern at Akili Dada and I work at Hazina towers in Nairobi’s Central Business District. Interning at Akili Dada has been a great learning experience for me and a really inspiring one. I have been a mentor to high school girls, something I have never done before. I have always been the mentee and not the mentor. I have been able to interact with great women from a wide variety of professions (Akili Dada mentors); this has really inspired me to dream big since I can be who I want to be. The highlight of my internship has been the mentoring visits. Together with other Akili Dada staff, mentors and alumnae, I visited the Akili Dada girls in their various schools and discussed the various Akili Dada values – sisterhood, leadership, excellence, transformation, and integrity. It was interesting to see the picture collages that everyone came up with representing the Akili Dada values. The lessons I learnt were numerous and I cannot forget them.

Akili Dada has really molded and transformed me to who I am today. Ever since I became a ‘dada’ my life has changed a lot. They took good care of me as if they were my blood sisters. They paid my school fees, provided shopping [for personal hygiene products] since I was in a boarding school, and also mentored me. I was always visited by a great woman with numerous achievements, at least once every term. I never felt left out when my parents couldn’t make it for visiting days because I knew my mentor would visit me later in the term. She listened to my dreams, my aspirations, and my visions and always provided guidance.

I did really well in my final secondary school exams; I got a grade ‘A’ of eighty three points. That was when Akili Dada offered me an opportunity to do an internship at the office. Since I live in Eldoret, which is about three hundred kilometers from Nairobi where Akili Dada offices are located, they found a hostel for me where I am currently living. They also introduced me to another organization called Zawadi Africa Education Fund which helps African girls from poor families to get admissions to colleges in the United States. I am currently applying to several colleges including Harvard, Tufts University, University of Rochester and Whitman College. I have already taken my SAT 1 exams and I hope to perform well in them. I have also been called to Moi University, which is a public campus here in Kenya, to study Medicine. I will be going to school later this year but I’ll still be waiting to see if any of the colleges I applied to in the US will accept me.

I am always grateful for what Akili Dada has done for me in my life and words cannot express how thankful I am. They saw a great lady in this fifteen year old girl and decided to nurture and help me exploit my full potential. That was back then when I was in my second year in high school. Their belief in me really encouraged me and made me believe in myself too. They brought back faith in my life when I had given up hope of ever becoming an influential person in society. I dream day and night of how I am going to transform my community, society and country at large. I want to make a difference and Akili Dada has empowered me to do just that. I get so many different ideas with each passing day of how I can transform my society and make it a better place. I would like to become a doctor when I grow up and help those in my community who cannot help themselves. I would like to help those who are sick in my community and cannot afford treatment which is quite expensive. I was inspired to join this profession by several Akili Dada mentors including Miss Karianjahi who is a doctor at Gertrude’s hospital. I believe that I can make a difference and I am determined to do so.”

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