August 5, 2018
Each year’s admissions season is marked by nervous anticipation and rigorous decision-making; fresh anxious faces prepping silently for their looming interviews; our admissions team sifting through applications, looking for that candidate that stands out. The nerves, the pressure, and expectation is thick in the air. Then comes the odd sensation of dread and relief, when as a prospective student, you get that one call you’ve been expecting for weeks, hoping you got in, yet fearing a rejection.
For Lorraine Makuyana, an incoming freshman, the expected call from Ashesi was an affirmative one, accepting her into our Engineering program. It was also the moment she reached an incredible milestone; she is now the first person in her family to complete high school and receive admission to a university. Hailing from Gweru in Zimbabwe, Lorraine worked consistently hard to ensure her college education.
“Growing up, life wasn’t flawless,” said Lorraine, who was awarded a Mastercard Foundation scholarship. “My parents could barely support us with the income made from selling small electrical appliances like plugs, fuses, adapters in a small flea market stall. We would always be chased out of school due to non-payment of school fees, but the will to make it, the urge to reach my potential made me strive for personal excellence.”
“I chose Ashesi for various reasons,” she said. “Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the way machines operate; I would pull apart objects, curious about what they were made up of. I wanted to become a mechanical engineer. Yet, I wanted a school that would give me a liberal arts education and would enable me to explore disciplines beyond my major. I also wanted a school that would equip me with the tools I need to succeed after graduation and a community where I would fit in with the rest of the student body and build lifelong relationships. I, however, needed a school that is need-blind, a school that would offer me a scholarship if admitted and I found all that at Ashesi University.”
Since its inception, Ashesi has been committed to making it possible for bright students across the continent to benefit from quality education, through our breath of financial aid offerings. Ashesi is always proud to enroll first-generation college students like Lorraine who are transcending the limitations around them.
“I look forward to a bright future and being a source of happiness for my family so that they don’t struggle the way they are now,” she said. “I want to prove to the world that a Zimbabwean girl from a small town like Gweru can also make it in life. I want to see my parents proud of having conceived the first person in the family, and perhaps even the first in my high-density township community, to graduate from university and make an impact.”
Share this story