Usman Nyallay, Grade 11
UWCEA Arusha Campus
Salut! I am more than happy today as I write this transcript on my interview with my mentor. We all do have mentors or people who we look up to and try to take and work in their footsteps. A mentor can be someone from your family, friends or people of high status in society who we take as mentors.
My mentor is someone so special and important in the educational system of my country. He is an alumni of the prince of Wales school kingtom and later he got a scholarship to study in Norway at UWC Red cross Nordic in 2004. He studied biomedical engineering at Harvard university. He researched aerolised vaccines for tuberculosis and he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2010. During his time at Harvard university, he was the cofounder of lebone solutions, a start-up that developed inexpensive batteries from microbial fuel cells. He was listed in 2013 wired magazine smart list. Sengeh joined Massachusetts institute of technology for his postgraduate studies working under the supervision of Hugh Herr. He was inspired to work on prosthetics because he grew up surrounded by victims of civil war and he also used MRI to map amputee’s limbs, then assessed where artificial materials could create pressure points and used 3D printing to generate new sockets. He was named as a TED fellow in 2014, delivering a talk entitled the sore problem of prosthetic limbs. He was selected as one of the Forbes 30 under 30 in 2014. He won the 2014 lemelson -MIT prize for his innovation in healthcare. He is currently the minister of the Ministry of Basic and senior secondary education and was appointed by the president in 2019. Personally, I idolise him because of his qualities of leadership which he has immensely displayed since his appointment as minister in 2019, his effortless work in aiding healthcare especially his innovation for amputees and his work in prosthetics and most importantly because of his character as a person.
Frankly speaking I have never had an interview with my idol as what happened between us on our school’s foundation ceremony was more of just a conversation in which both of us had the chance to ask questions and also talk about our school (Prince of Wales school). As I can vividly recall it was on the 6 th of April in 2019 when we had a ceremony for our school’s foundation day and my mentor was the guest speaker on that day. During this programme someone walked all the way from the high table down to where I was seated and to my surprise it was my mentor himself. I was left stunned at the fact that he walked through all the crowed and found himself seated by me and at this moment I felt as if all my dreams had come true and all my questions will definitely be answered today. As another kid in my situation will be I was unable to say a word at first and seconds after he sat by me, he asked me few questions like what level I was in, what is my name, what courses I was taking and whom were my tutors at school.
Due to the fact that he was to give his talk on the ceremony about 10 minutes later I was not opportune to ask as many questions as I may have wanted to but nevertheless, I was able to as two vary important questions which were: how did he achieve so much in life as a young man and how was school life for him at the prince of Wales. For the former like most successful people will answer such questions he answered with words like determination, perseverance, hard work and most importantly humility. As for the latter the answer he gave was one I already had featured he will give which was his time at prince of Wales being one of the best with lots of unforgettable memories and a trying and difficult academic experience which prepared him well enough for the adventure he had ahead of him in life. And sadly, for me before I could ask my piled-up questions, he was called up to give his speech at the ceremony for which he was there for.
My mentor is someone so special and important in the educational system of my country. He is an alumni of the prince of Wales school kingtom and later he got a scholarship to study in Norway at UWC Red cross Nordic in 2004. He studied biomedical engineering at Harvard university. He researched aerolised vaccines for tuberculosis and he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2010. During his time at Harvard university, he was the cofounder of lebone solutions, a start-up that developed inexpensive batteries from microbial fuel cells. He was listed in 2013 wired magazine smart list. Sengeh joined Massachusetts institute of technology for his postgraduate studies working under the supervision of Hugh Herr. He was inspired to work on prosthetics because he grew up surrounded by victims of civil war and he also used MRI to map amputee’s limbs, then assessed where artificial materials could create pressure points and used 3D printing to generate new sockets. He was named as a TED fellow in 2014, delivering a talk entitled the sore problem of prosthetic limbs. He was selected as one of the Forbes 30 under 30 in 2014. He won the 2014 lemelson -MIT prize for his innovation in healthcare. He is currently the minister of the Ministry of Basic and senior secondary education and was appointed by the president in 2019. Personally, I idolise him because of his qualities of leadership which he has immensely displayed since his appointment as minister in 2019, his effortless work in aiding healthcare especially his innovation for amputees and his work in prosthetics and most importantly because of his character as a person.
Frankly speaking I have never had an interview with my idol as what happened between us on our school’s foundation ceremony was more of just a conversation in which both of us had the chance to ask questions and also talk about our school (Prince of Wales school). As I can vividly recall it was on the 6 th of April in 2019 when we had a ceremony for our school’s foundation day and my mentor was the guest speaker on that day. During this programme someone walked all the way from the high table down to where I was seated and to my surprise it was my mentor himself. I was left stunned at the fact that he walked through all the crowed and found himself seated by me and at this moment I felt as if all my dreams had come true and all my questions will definitely be answered today. As another kid in my situation will be I was unable to say a word at first and seconds after he sat by me, he asked me few questions like what level I was in, what is my name, what courses I was taking and whom were my tutors at school.
Due to the fact that he was to give his talk on the ceremony about 10 minutes later I was not opportune to ask as many questions as I may have wanted to but nevertheless, I was able to as two vary important questions which were: how did he achieve so much in life as a young man and how was school life for him at the prince of Wales. For the former like most successful people will answer such questions he answered with words like determination, perseverance, hard work and most importantly humility. As for the latter the answer he gave was one I already had featured he will give which was his time at prince of Wales being one of the best with lots of unforgettable memories and a trying and difficult academic experience which prepared him well enough for the adventure he had ahead of him in life. And sadly, for me before I could ask my piled-up questions, he was called up to give his speech at the ceremony for which he was there for.
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