Posts Tagged ‘selection process’

Last Day of Interviews – 2 Spots Remain

It has been A HARD student selection process. Quite literally, over the past 2+ weeks a group of at least 4 Daraja Academy administrators (director of operations Peter Wathitu, vice principal Victoria, Jenni and I) along with a handful of volunteers, have conducted well over 100 student interviews. We have logged in almost 2,000 kms driving to Isiolo, Nairobi, Limuru, Eldoret, Kitale, Kakamega and all the way to Kisumu on Lake Victoria.

We have learned that word of Daraja Academy has spread across Kenya. With it we are meeting girls of tremendous need, who FAR exceed our expectations. Girls who received “straight A’s” all 8 years of primary school. Girls who were able to hold themselves together through abject poverty. Orphans who grew up with brothers and sisters and NO guardians, surviving on the goodwill of neighbors, missing school to dig ditches for food money – who somehow performed incredibly in school. We met girls still living in camps, displaced after the election violence, girls who still sleep in U.N. tents provided by the High Commission for Refugees. We have met miracles… three times I have excused my self from interviews because my eyes were so full of tears. These girls are angels, and we can’t take them all.

This is the reason I have not written on the BLOG about the process. I have played sports my entire life and this has been the most exhausting thing by far that I have ever done. The problem is at the end of the day, sleep is fought off by the problem presented that day: 13 amazing girls, 2 spots.

I am the luckiest man alive. This school is a lifelong dream. However, I would be misrepresenting myself if I didn’t describe the past 2 weeks as an equal mix of dream and nightmare. The indescribable highs of giving a wonderful young lady access to education and the lows of knowing there are others who today… we cannot help.

However, I have no doubt that as this project builds momentum, as people in North America, Europe, Africa and beyond hear about what is going on here… our scope will grow.

Until, please continue spreading the word about Daraja, that is the best weapon of change we have.

Later this week, when all is decided I will introduce that Daraja Academy class of 2014.

Thank you so much,
JASON DOHERTY

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Filed under From the Founder : Comments (0) : Feb 15th, 2010

“Student Selection” through Colin’s eyes

I heard a quote while raising awareness for Daraja Academy last September that has stuck with me. Ted Church, a Daraja supporter from Boulder, Colorado remarked in an off hand way that, “all roads lead to Daraja.” The people that are caught by the inertia of this small girls school in central Kenya are nothing short of remarkable. Often they hear about the girls and ultimately end up joining our movement in very unexpected ways.

The following piece was written by Colin Grisel, who’s road luckily lead to Daraja. He has been working tirelessly to forward the Daraja Academy cause since his arrival in November. Originally from Switzerland, he has lived in Egypt and Nepal, utilizing the skills he learned while earning his master’s degree in Development. Colin has started a monthly Daraja newsletter while also making in-roads to Kenyan and international organizations. I really feel that he explains the tug-o-war that occurs inside of all of us, during this difficult selection process.

Jason Doherty

A TOUGH SELECTION

Daraja Academy is currently doing what I believe to be the toughest part of its work: selecting for the year to come, among a high pile of excellent but heartbreaking applications, 25 students. The school will have to turn down a number of brilliant girls in need of support: it is simply impossible to give a chance to all of them.

I hope this sounds tough on paper because I can confirm that it is also tough, in the field. Jenni and Jason Doherty, with the good advice of their outstanding Kenyan staff, must distribute the “yes’s” and the “no’s”. Because of your support, they are able to offer four-year scholarships, but this does come at the price of refusing help to others.

Today, Friday 29th, we met eleven amazing girls, knowing that there would be only one or two seats available in the Daraja Academy classrooms for students coming from this specific part of Kenya. Nine “no’s” to distribute, for two “yes’s”.

They all exposed us good reasons why Daraja Academy should accept them. Great marks at school, despite pasts full of stories about poverty, death, sicknesses, unemployment, prostitution, riots, refugee camps… always with voices full of hope and determination. Answering our questions with strength and courage, some girls, at times, burst into tears. This is a scene that I didn’t want to exist, but it is a reality that I needed to face.

Small girls, who looked fragile, proved to be so strong, so big, proved to know a lot more about the meaning of life than I do. Between other things, what these young women taught me today is exactly what I recently read in a Persian poem: “you have two ears and only one mouth, so listen twice as often as you speak.” They gave me a great lesson in humility that I wish to never forget.

I look forward to meeting some of these girls on campus come March! And I wish the best of luck, with all my broken heart, to the ones that I might not see again…

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Filed under Misc : Comments (0) : Feb 2nd, 2010