27 scholars from the Equity Leadership Program comprising of Wings to Fly alumni beneficiaries and those who topped the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations in the country have received early admissions with full scholarship valued at Ksh 916,670,492 (USD8,076,392) to 18 global universities.
The admissions are spread across USA, South Africa, Asia, Middle East and Europe.
The total number of scholars admitted to global universities is expected to rise after the regular admission decisions are made by end of May 2022.
This brings the total number of ELP scholars and alumni of global universities to 715. Of this, the total number of Wings to Fly beneficiaries in global universities stands at 154 scholars.
When announcing the early admissions, Dr. James Mwangi, the Group MD and CEO of Equity Group Holdings and Chairman of Equity Group Foundation (EGF) said, “This marks a good start for our scholars’ entry into leading universities around the world. Out of the 27 early decisions with full scholarship, 11 have admissions to Ivy League Universities in the United States including Cornell (2), Dartmouth (2), Princeton (1), University of Pennsylvania (4) and Yale (2). This is commendable noting that this is a cohort that was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that had the scholars take a 9-month break from school to study from home. Despite the circumstances brought about by the delay, their performance compares favourably with the 2020 cohort that secured 26 early decisions.”
Equity supported the scholars with an 8-week long College Counselling program fully funded by the Bank, where scholars were guided and mentored on the university application and preparation process.
The ELP program positions the scholars as the next generation of leaders both locally and globally.
They are therefore supported to access secondary education for the case of Wings to Fly alumni and, together with top national performers, obtain access to 2-6 months paid internship where they gain work experience and sharpen their leadership skills.
The Program embeds mentorship and leadership development with the purpose of moulding well-rounded scholars who are creative, innovative and who connect with the communities that they come from.
The values of giving back to the community, professionalism, applying a solution approach, combined with value-based servant leadership, and academic excellence are some of the components that are key in the Equity Leaders Program.
The power of networks remains a pillar in this program, and locally the ELP scholars continue to utilize the diverse skills, capabilities and opportunities as corporate leaders and entrepreneurs. For example, Equity Afia is an ELP-run medical franchise that is transforming medical service delivery in the country. The initiative demonstrates the capacity of our young people to provide solutions to local challenges, when given an opportunity and the right support to optimise on their academic talent and potential.
Dr. Mwangi further said “The success of ELP in Kenya inspired our strategy to roll out the program in the other regions where Equity has operations. Currently Uganda, Rwanda, and DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo) have launched their respective ELP initiatives, and we are confident that these young leaders will continue to shape the leadership dialogue across the globe.”
