The Education minister Dr. Vincent Biruta on 27 April 2012, attended a Graduation Ceremony held at Oklahoma Christian University.
In attendance were Rwanda’s Ambassador to US James Kimonyo and hundreds of Rwandans living in USA.
The Commencement ceremony that took place Friday morning had 11 Rwandan Students graduating in areas of Science and Engineering with one graduating with Masters in Engineering.
The 11 Students make up the third group of Rwandan Presidential Scholars (RPS) graduating from Oklahoma Christian since the inception of the program in 2006.
The Graduation ceremony was followed by a meeting of the OC Rwandan Students with the Ambassador and Minister of Education.
During the meeting, Rwandan students presented some of the innovative projects they had initiated to help develop Rwanda and themselves.
Yves Iradukunda (Junior at OC, and ELERwanda CEO) presented ELERwanda, a platform for Entrepreneurial Innovation by Rwandan students connecting them to investors.
“We are organizing a business Competition and a summit this June that will connect Innovative Rwandan Students from all over the USA to investors and advocates”, Iradukunda said.
Seven other students presented other innovative projects that they had initiated or were involved in. These included Rwandans4Water, NationalExaminations.com, Isaro Foundation to mention but a few.
Dr. Biruta commended the Students for working on side projects to help develop Rwanda while studying, “the ministry of Education recently started a Rwanda Innovation Endowment Fund specifically for the purpose of funding innovative projects”.
There was a blessing ceremony for the Graduating Students which was also attended by the Oklahoma Christian University Administration.
Pie Masomo, one of the Graduating students speaking on behalf of the Graduands said he was at a loss for words to describe how thankful he was for the support and guidance the Community had provided to them.
“To the host families, I thank you for having taken care of us as your own”, Pie added. John De Steiguer, President at OC made the concluding remarks during the ceremony and said a prayer for the Graduating Students.
Currently close to 60 Students are pursuing degrees in various courses in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. (STEM)This graduation ceremony is the first of many, this year that are taking place as Rwandan Presidential Scholars graduate in many universities across the USA.
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