Ten Rwandan Students Scoop U.S. Scholarships

By EUGENE MUTARA for the New Times

Wednesday, 05 July 2006

KIGALI CITY:Ten Rwandan students have successfully passed the screening examinations for 4-year science and technology courses in Oklahoma Christian University (OCU) in the United States of America.

This was disclosed last week by pastor Dave Jerkins, of Christ’s Church in Rwanda that facilitated the scholarship programme discussions between the OCU and the Ministry of Education. This was during a party held for the students at his residence in Kimihurura, also attended by the Minister of Education, Jean D’arc Mujawamariya, Minister of Science and Technology in the President’s office, Romain Murenzi and the National Aids Commission (CNLS) chairman, Rev. Nathan Gasatura, among others.

Jerkins in his speech said, “Rwanda is privileged to have got scholarships for ten students to study science and technology courses in one of the prestigious universities in the US. This will go a long way to improving the human resource deficit in the country especially in areas of technology and science. The selection was based on merit. We gave them interviews and only ten out of twenty four students selected by the Ministry of Education, passed our screening tests.”

According to Jerkins, OCU opened the opportunity for Rwanda following discussions between University President Mike O’Neal and President Paul Kagame when he visited Rwanda in 2004.

Jerkins stressed that the discussions led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the COU and the Rwandan government for the scholarship programme.

The CNLS Chairman, Rev. Gasatura and the Minister Mujawamariya (pictured right) advised students to work heard and make sure that they come back to serve their country.

“The standards of living in USA can tempt you to stay there, but remember that there is a fundamental reason for you to study in that university. You must come back to bridge the gap we have in the field to be taken and to effectively participate in national development,” the minister counselled.

The minister noted that the government has a deliberate programme of students going to different countries on scholarships on merit which was different in the past regimes.

One of the students Aline Kabatende, said that they will maintain the good image of the country by coming back to serve their motherland.