Meet Lee; a cheerful spirit and one of our instructors-in-training at Elimu’s Cisco Networking Academy. Every morning, you will find Lee teaching a group of young minds who come to our Cisco Networking Academy for the “IT Essentials” certificate course. Most of the learners he teaches are his age; every now and then, you’ll hear laughter from the room as they discuss concepts in their youthful language.
Lee first came to Elimu Resource Centre as a Cisco learner. After graduating high school, he could not go to college immediately due to financial constraints back home. Like many young people we serve, Lee was looking for something to hold onto, something that would give his life meaning. His Cisco certificate and his love for community service gave him just that!
After his classes, you’d find him asking questions and consulting with his instructor, Anthony. Upon completing his classes, he kept coming to the Centre, doing more research and learning from the IT team. For Lee, his Cisco certification opened the door to a world he could only have dreamed of before.
Our team saw this deep desire to excel and soon started to include him in the many IT practical sessions, even inviting him to join on projects they were working on. For a twenty-year-old, Lee is wiser than his age. He values team work and shows great commitment in every task assigned to him. He has taught over twenty youth at the Academy and volunteers his time behind the camera whenever he is not in class, eager to gain more photographic and video skills from us
Lee, like many of his peers who have passed through our Centre, is finding his life’s purpose through service to the community. Even as he looks forward to pursuing a medical course in the university, he has many success stories to bank on.
Others have led the way before Lee. Hosea discovered his love for IT from his volunteering experience and is now pursuing Computer Science at university. Wanjiku went on to work with one of Elimu’s partners as a coding and robotics instructor. Christine is completing a diploma in ICT thanks to her experience volunteering at Elimu. Same case for Lavender who found her way to media studies.
The zeal and determination in these young people inspire us to journey with youth so that they can realize their life and career goals. So far, Elimu has nurtured over 20 youth interns and volunteers through its Youth Futures Program. With your support, we will enlist more and help them find their way to more meaningful futures.