Nova Pioneer’s initiative dubbed Kilimanjaro 4 The Kids (K4TK) has raised over $30,000 for Science, Technology, Mathematics and Engineering (STEM) programs and scholarships. The activity was preceded by Nova’s teachers and staff who managed to reach the peak of Africa’s highest point at Mt. Kilimanjaro.
An upcoming network of innovative private schools across Kenya and South Africa, Nova Pioneer Education Group spurred the onset of the K4TK program in July 2017 to complement its commitment to prepping the next generation of innovators and leaders.
Since July, Nova managed to gather funds through awareness-building events as well as grassroots online fundraising programs. Notably, 100 percent of support raised will go directly to the program’s course.
The funds are meant to support two major initiatives; an Innovation Fund where students will be given a platform to pursue passions as described by STEM offerings, as well as the Scholarship Fund that will give financial assistance to top students who would not have the chance to attend Nova Pioneer. Focus will be pegged on student who ooze passion and aptitude for STEM courses.
In the past three months, the K4TK team that includes teachers and staff from Kenya and South Africa has been involved with intense training programs and a range of academic activities that have since spurred the creation of innovative opportunities for student to widen their scope in STEM and community building events, such as the Student Innovation Talk that took place in Nairobi.
“It has been a tremendous joy to see the level of support we have received for K4TK from far and wide across South Africa, Kenya, and beyond. We embarked on this journey as a way to symbolise the heights to which we are committed to supporting our students, to ascend, and now that our team reached the highest point on the continent, we are eager to bring those student initiatives to life,” says Chinezi Chijioke, Nova Pioneer’s CEO.
“The whole journey towards climbing Kilimanjaro taught me that whatever your dreams are today, dream even bigger, wherever you have set your sights, raise them even higher and above all keep going. Keep moving and nourishing what makes your voice unique and defend it. I’m excited to share these reflections with our students, as they climb mountains (literal and figurative) of their own,” added Delilah Kerina, a teacher for Nova Pioneer Kenya and member of the climbing team.
The team hopes to bring back the journey to all Nova Pioneer students to emphasize the ability for a group of individuals to work together to achieve a challenging goal and the capacity for all students to achieve much more than they may have ever thought possible.
