Varsity awards mother of all degrees

At 45, Mrs Julia Nduta Korongo has made history at Moi University and beyond. She was one of this year’s few graduands awarded a First Class honours degree during the university’s 23rd graduation ceremony that saw 4,529 graduands conferred with degrees and diplomas.

And she beat her daughter, with whom they had pursued the same course. They could not have been together were it not for an inter-school Transfer programme in 2005 that saw her daughter, Laura Mataga Korongo switch from the school of arts and social sciences to join her for a Bachelor of Science course in Information Sciences.

“We were in the same class from first year to third year when we separated except for the common courses,” says Mrs Korongo with a chuckle.

Have been friends

The two have been friends and are not about to part ways. “At first, I was surprised to learn that we could be learning in the same class. It didn’t occur to me that at the university, the situation is not similar to life at secondary schools where we had different streams,” says Laura.

“My prayer was that we are not taught by lecturers who unnecessarily embarrass students. I couldn’t stand being embarrassed before my mother or the same happening to her,” she says.

In class, Mrs Korongo sat in the front row at all times whereas her daughter preferred sitting several seats behind her.

Mrs Korongo says life has been exciting attending classes with her second-born daughter. “She has been an inspiration to me and a challenge as well. As a mother, I was to set a good example so that when I advice her to work hard, she exactly knows what I mean.”

At one time, she could not avoid thinking how she would feel if her daughter did better than her, given that the course was science oriented and she had stayed out of school for many years.

She sat her KCE in 1981 and later did a diploma in Information Technology before joining the university as a secretary.

But things worked well for the mother of three and she eventually specialised in the male dominated IT during her fourth year of study, whereas her daughter opted for publishing and media studies.

The mother had to balance her role as a secretary at the university, a mother, a wife and a student. At times, she confesses she would feel overwhelmed by the workload, but not worn-out.

“With proper planning, nothing is difficult to accomplish. I had to get used to sleeping after midnight in order to complete my assignments,” she says.

Together with four other students, they formed a discussion group, which worked well for her. “The discussions would remain glued in my mind and be handy during examinations,” Mrs Korongo recalls.

Though she admits she worked hard and deserved a good grade, the First Class came as a surprise.

“I was performing well right from my first year, but I did not expect to be the overall best student in my class of 157 students,” she says, tears of joy freely flowing down her cheeks.

She adds: “I feel so honoured with this award. I worked hard for it and it has motivated me to immediately enrol for a Master’s degree in Information Technology. I will stop at PhD level.”

Mrs Korongo reveals that her future plan is to be a reliable entrepreneur with the capacity to run her own communications and information technology firm.