About John Kidenda
John was The RSC Foundation’s first scholarship recipient, and he is now part of our family. He has joined the Board of Directors, and started working here in Austin. During his time at UT, John was also a Roden Scholar, and received scholarships from the Texas Exes, Jane Cook Barnhill, Merrill Lynch, and the Texas Wranglers.
John also maintained an active extracurricular life including the following:
- Vice President for Advertising and Promotions of the UT Chapter of the National Black MBA Association.
- Fund Director for the Texas Global Investment Group.
- Director for the International Student Affairs Agency at UT.
- Successful internships with Merrill Lynch in New York City the past three summers.
- Webmaster for the African Students’ Association.
- Awarded Honors Chords in April of 2008.
- Student Member for the Clinton Global Initiative, 2009.
- Panelist:Â Africa and its Emerging Markets forum, Act Local Think Global, 2009.
John’s latest update – In His Own Words:
As you know now, I graduated from the McCombs School of business in December 2009 with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree through the Engineering Route to Business (ERB) Program. My concentrations were Computer Engineering and Accounting/Finance. It was a challenging and exciting degree to pursue and I had a lot of fun completing it.
In February of this year I began working for The Advisory Board Company (ABC) as a business analyst. ABC is health care consulting company headquartered in Washington DC. The division I work for is called Crimson and is based in our beautiful city of Austin! Being able work in Austin has been a double benefit; not only do I get to enjoy the warmth and hospitality of this city that I have come to love, I am also able to be a more effective and active member of the RSC Foundation’s Board of Directors.
As a new board member, I have a lot to learn and I relish the opportunity to be locally-based as I work my way through the steep learning curve. The student selection process at the beginning of the year really brought home the benefits of being Austin-based.
The movie screening this May was my first one as an official board member, and I learned a lot as we worked through the process of preparing for the event. Now that we are done with the screening and we are diving deeper into fine-tuning the strategic direction of the foundation, I am glad I am within reach and able to participate in the processes. I hope to continue riding this wave of new experiences, absorbing as much as I can so that I can transmit my new found knowledge back to Africa.
Another exciting part of the post graduation era has been beginning to pay-forward my scholarship. I find this the greatest evidence that we at the RSC Foundation are truly pioneering a new approach to investing in human potential through the power of education. I am proud to be joining an organization like Vittana – at the vanguard of education finance for the developing world. Every time I make a donation back to the RSC scholarship fund, I am excited by the direct connection that I see between me meeting my commitment, and helping another promising African student gain a world-class education.
Finally, as we prepare to receive Yves, our new student from The Democratic Republic of Congo, I am also preparing to make my first trip back to Kenya in 5 years! Though I have longed to make the trip home for a long time, I have been constrained by tight finances, and the need to work during the summer breaks. Now that I am done with school, I am really looking forward to seeing my siblings again and reconnecting with the people and the land that still has my heart.
I feel like this will be a seminal moment since it will be my first opportunity in half a decade to connect all my thoughts about the continent with the reality on the ground. I also hope that the trip will double as an opportunity to explore other ways in which I can continue to help both Kenya, and Africa as a whole, build a better and more prosperous future. I will be sure to take lots of pictures so that you too can join me on this epic journey – back to where it all began. 
-August, 2010