MGS Alumna Spotlight: From Student to Staff to College Student
Hi! My name is Alice Lambert Rutayisire, class of 2018. I started attending the Maranyundo Girls School in 2013 as a 7th grade student. I went to primary school in Tanzania, so when I joined Maranyundo, I was in a completely new environment and culture. I expected my first year to be frustrating and was worried that I wasn't going to fit in. But I was wrong. As soon as I got to the administration building, I had a family waiting for me. I had a "mom" who was in the 8th grade and a "grandmother" in the 9th. The staff were friendly and I made friends easily. Looking back today, I can testify that Maranyundo is a community, a family. It's a place for everybody regardless of background, culture, or financial differences.
During high school, I was part of a number of extra curricular activities on and off campus (debate, music, dance, essay writing, charity clubs etc). Each of these activities were important to me because these clubs gave us a break from all the science we learned in class and gave room for personal growth and broadened my knowledge on global issues. Also during this time, my family went through some financial hardships and I was offered a scholarship because I had promising grades on my 9th grade exams.
My interest to apply to college started when I attended the Yale Young African Scholars program in 2017 when I was in my last semester of 11th grade and that's when I began to understand the college application process and requirements. I had decided that I wanted to apply for schools in the US, and Ms. Lula, our College Counselor, started to work with me on researching schools. The process was more intense than I thought but I stayed focused. My friends and I also helped each other with essay editing, test preps and gathering the necessary documents. My early decision school was Brown University. I was deferred so I went on to the regular decision and applied to six more schools in the US. I got admitted to one, and was waitlisted and declined in others. I was so confused and disappointed and decided to wait to figure out college until after I graduated.
Graduating high school in December 2018 was the best. Just like everybody else, I was looking forward to starting the next chapter. I went home to Tanzania, visited my family, friends and relatives. After two months of being at home, I was ready to start looking for a job or an internship when I saw an email from Sr. Juvenal and Ms. Lula about an internship at Maranyundo. I don't know if fate had anything to do with it but for the second time, I got on the bus, and went right back to Rwanda and got the job. Only this time, I wasn't going to be a student. I started interning as the Assistant College Counselor at the end of April 2019.
While working for MGS, I decided to spend more time looking and researching schools, asking for advice, and preparing for the SATs. This time, I also looked into Rwandan schools. It was good to not have high expectations and instead, put the work in. I went to ALU (African Leadership University) in Kigali for a meeting and synced with the place almost immediately. I wanted to be part of the setting, diversity, and the energy. So I applied to the school, got admitted, and proceeded with the scholarship application, which later turned out to be a success. I am now officially part of the ALU class of 2024! I am excited to see what’s next for me.
