LECTURERS WHO DON’T JUST TEACH IN CLASS BUT MENTOR STUDENTS TO ACHIEVE EXCELLENCE.
DeKUT Spotlight, July 2019.
MEET ELIZABETH NDUNGE BENSON- AN ASSISTANT LECTURER, SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
“I am passionate about mentoring and supporting our students to bring their dreams into realization. Each week I hold talks and sessions with students whose aim is to support and build their capacity. Other than teaching, I create sessions with my students, help them understand opportunities available for them and how they can translate the skills they have into productivity. I train them on software development, I take them to conferences, I source for donors to sponsor our students to attend conferences. I hold seminars with our students, just to sharpen their presentation skills.” – Elizabeth Ndunge Benson.
Every teacher’s joy is to see their students succeed. After a few spotlight features of our alumni, Elizabeth expressed her excitement in these words: “It’s amazing how our students have continued to excel in the market globally.” It’s clear that she is a very proud lecturer.
Elizabeth Ndunge Benson is an assistant lecturer, School of Computer Science and Information Technology; Department of Information Technology. She is a PhD student at Jomo Kenyatta University, School of Computer Science and Information Technology, where on February 2019 she presented her final thesis defense and passed; she will be travelling to Furtwangen University, Germany this September on scholarship to collect road traffic data and apply it to her system. She will then graduate as soon as she is back. Elizabeth is a holder of a Master’s Degree in Information Technology Management from Sunderland University (UK) and B. Sc Computer Science (First class honors) from Kabarak University.
Elizabeth is passionate about mentoring young girls in IT; especially girls in the slums. This led her to founding Joasher Technologies and Consultancy in 2016; a company that supports and trains young girls in ICT. Other than teaching here at the University, Elizabeth creates sessions with her students, helps them understand opportunities available for them and how they can translate the skills they have into productivity. She trains them on software development, takes them to conferences and looks for donors to sponsor our students to attend conferences. She further holds seminars with our students, just to sharpen their presentation skills. Last year, Elizabeth took two students to Stellenbosch University (Cape town) for the Deep Learning Indaba 2018 Conference; she sourced for donors who paid for these students’ flights and accommodation. At this conference, she was honored to present her PhD research concept. This year’s Deep Learning Indaba Conference is at Kenyatta University from 25th to 31st August. Elizabeth was appointed to be the accommodation chair for the conference and she says, “I am hoping to take a big number of our students to this conference.”
She indeed stops at nothing to push opportunities to our students and to lead them to excellence.
“After our students graduate, I have always kept in touch with them; to walk with them on the journey of either getting a job or starting a business. My passion is to see our students succeed in life and become better people.”- she adds.
Elizabeth has won several awards:
- Feb 2018 -March 2019: Mawazo Institute 2018 Scholarships Award through which her PhD school fees, conferences and trainings were fully paid for.
- 2009 -2012: The Commonwealth Scholarship from Sunderland University - full sponsorship for her Master’s degree.
- November 2010: An award for exemplary performance and leadership to implement Barclays bank core banking system.
It is through such dedication of our lecturers that we are indeed able to produce quality and holistic graduates for the job market, entrepreneurship and leaders in different sectors who continue to contribute to national development.
Congratulations Elizabeth! We celebrate you.