Alumni Spotlight: Njoki Mburu (Class of 2016)
“Doing the best you can wherever you are”: Njoki Mburu from Kenya is one of the 100 students from the very first generation at RBC. Having graduated in 2016, she reflects on the past seven years for our 2023 Annual Report:
It’s hard to believe that I am coming up on the seven-year mark of living in Canada. I still remember the day I first landed at Vancouver International Airport with a deep longing to be back with the community at UWC RBC and my family. To sum up the intervening years seems an impossible challenge. I have changed significantly, as is evident in many areas of my life – my way of thinking, speaking, relating, etc. I am thankful for where I am today in my health, well-being, relationships, experiences, dreams, and aspirations.
While here, I completed my four-year undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia. I began as a student within the Faculty of Science, intending to specialize in Environmental Science. In the first semester, however, I realized that it would not include as much social science as I had hoped. I was then fortunate to be introduced to a small yet mighty program within the Faculty of Land and Food Systems (LFS). This program, which was like the sweetest pot of honey, is called ‚Global Resource Systems‘. I took a range of courses (some in Environmental Science), travelled twice to Kenya for internships, went on a five-week field course to Bogor, Indonesia, and was selected as valedictorian (student speaker) for the entire UBC undergraduate body at graduation in 2020.
Graduating in the pandemic was simply devastating. My hopes and plans for life-after-grad almost dissolved, and I was left picking up bits of hope and inspiration wherever I could find them. It took me eight grueling months after graduation to find my first full-time job. After leaving that job last year, I’ve lived another journey of steep mountains and valleys looking for full-time roles, networking, and engaging with part-time contracts.
One of my greatest joys now is that I get to learn, research, and write about a topic I never thought I would be talking about. My work as a Transformation Storytelling Fellow with the Community Foundations of Canada has enabled me to grow my technical and non-technical knowledge of Web3 and connect this with my deep passion for social impact and systems transformation. I’ve also had the incredible opportunity to pursue my strong interest in public policy. Having participated in the 2020 LEVEL Youth Public Policy Program through the Vancouver Foundation, I was able to author my very first Policy Brief. In 2022, I returned to the LEVEL program as a facilitator, supporting 15 brilliant emerging public policy leaders around British Columbia. I am currently part of a team of four designing an alumni engagement strategy so that our work continues to make waves across the political and socio-economic landscapes we are part of.
With all these beautiful, challenging, and empowering experiences in my life, I must remind myself sometimes to pause and soak it all in. The seven years have gone by so fast. I do not know where I will be next year, but I do know that I miss being amongst the incredible cohort of UWC RBC’s first generation. What I also know is that there is a great reward (and sometimes difficult transformation) when you choose to live in alignment with your truest self and to do the best you can wherever you are.
See you soon in Freiburg, my people ❤
