Hey everyone, welcome to our last member spotlight series post. This time, we put Jefferson Kang’acha, our Chief Operating Officer, on the spot and drilled him with a bunch of questions. I hope ya’ll are excited to get to know our hardworking Chief Operating Officer.

Jefferson Kang’acha is the Chief Operating Officer here at School for a Village. Jefferson oversees a lot of the day-to-day operations in our organization, and works extremely hard in multiple aspects, keeping everything running as smoothly as possible. Jefferson is also crucial in developing the relationship between us and the schools that work with us in Kenya. Simply put, Jefferson is an incredibly crucial member of our team, and he is extremely passionate about what he does, so let’s get to know him!

Jeff is currently 21-years-old, and attending Cornell University with the intention of double majoring in applied economics and international agriculture (a fellow Cornellian!). He is passionate about finding data-driven solutions for frontier markets in sub-saharan Africa. Basically, he wants to use data from individuals to design solutions that are human-centered and customized to the problems they have with a special focus on low-income, developing countries (more about his passions and dreams later). He has a sister that he is very close with, despite being physically distant from her.

Jefferson came from a farming background – his parents are smallholder farmers, and his grandparents are smallholder farmers. If you don’t know who smallholder farmers are, they are farmers in developing countries who are often trapped in a cycle of low-intensity, subsistence-oriented farming, low yields, and insufficient profits. He has seen how education has given his parents a “more dignified shot at life”, and is very grateful that his parents had worked hard to give him the education that brought him to where he is today. As a result of this education, he believes that he has the responsibility to make sure that each and every child in his community receives the same opportunities that he had. With this goal in mind, Jefferson started searching for avenues to help communities like his own that are filled with smallholder farmers who are marginalized in terms of receiving quality education. He started off running a STEM program inside his old home in which he would invite children over after school to spend time with them and help them tackle problem sets. He loved having this center for his peers to explore and spend more time with their studies, at one point he realized that this initiative was addressing the problem at a microscale, and he knew that he needed to expand in order to have a bigger impact. That was when he met Anjali, our CEO, a like-minded initiative, and he decided to merge with School For a Village. 

Now, let’s address some of his passions. Jefferson is extremely passionate about making a difference in social innovation, youth empowerment, and social entrepreneurship. He hopes to be of impact to low-developing communities within the lines of education, agriculture, and finance. He is especially interested in how he can use the power of education to scale agriculture and nurture more innovative talents in agriculture. In the future, he hopes to be a voice for smallholder farmers by bringing back sovereignty to these farmers – he believes this can be accomplished by ensuring that their children and families have access to quality education. He also hopes to be in a space where he will be able to influence educational, agricultural, and technological policy in sub-saharan Africa. 

I was quite impressed by the ambitions and dreams that Jefferson shared with me, and I’m rooting for him to be able to accomplish these goals and truly make a difference in the lives of smallholder farmers. Next, we asked Jeff about some of his role models. He wouldn’t necessarily name John F. Kennedy as a role model, but he certainly draws inspiration from his quote, “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” Jeff explains that many of the time, we wait for problems to be solved, but we all have potential to cause change in our own small ways that goes a long way in creating a ripple effect. Also, Jeff is encouraged by Kennedy’s ambitions to land the first man on the moon – a “moon shot” as he calls it, and he is inspired to try to land as many “moon shots” as he can in order to give humanity a more decent and dignified shot at life. Jefferson is also encouraged by photojournalist Boniface Mwangi, who has been a long-time activist in Kenya, and has completed many initiatives to address political injustices. Mwangi has exposed many corrupt politicians and always reminds his audience to choose their leaders wisely. 

Jeff’s proudest achievement so far has been being the youngest representative in the education committee of his home state, and bringing about change in the education sector as a voice for young people. He believes that out of all his achievements so far, this one is the best because its impact goes beyond himself as an individual, but whatever he did will be used by so many people even after he is off the position. Jeff believes in an African philosophy called Ubuntu, which means “I am because we are”. This is the power of coming together to build a common front, a united front for solving problems. Jefferson loves collaborative spaces, and he believes that the world needs more interconnectedness now more than ever. 

Now, we will get to know about what Jeff does in his free time. Jefferson loves to sing. He is a choral performer and loves singing in acapellas and glee clubs. He loves listening to a wide variety of music such as Afro-fusion, hip-hop, and a more specialized music called Lingala. Back when he lived in Colorado, he lived at the base of the flatirons mountain, so he woke up to amazing scenery, and he had the freedom to be able to go hiking any time.

Some of Jefferson’s favorite courses are perspectives in international agriculture and development finance, which is actually quite useful for nonprofit organizations like School for a Village. Jeff’s favorite food at Cornell is Sesame Chicken and he would be able to tell what days the dining halls would have them because students would absolutely flock to the halls during those days. His favorite meal outside of Cornell is ‘Nyama choma’, which is an African type of barbecue that he loves having with his friends in Nairobi while enjoying warm weather and  a live music band.

The fictional character that Jeff resonates with the most is actually Moana (I was really surprised by this). This is because Moana was audacious enough to leave her home and answer the ocean’s call in search of  an everlasting cure for her ailing island. Despite the fact that she was extremely young, she found her identity and rose above the status quo to become the Island’s Chief and Masterway finder . This shows that no matter how young you are, you still have all it takes to provide leadership and be a problem solver. This gives confidence to Jeff to amplify his voice and find his place in inspiring change right from the grassroots level.

That just about wraps up our last member spotlight series post. I hope you enjoyed Jefferson’s story… Oh, one last thing. Jefferson would like to leave you all with his own quote: speak courage frequently and keep hope alive.

Thank you for reading this member spotlight series post, and for keeping up with our entire series. We thoroughly hoped you enjoyed these posts, and we really enjoyed writing them as well. Keep an eye out for our next blog post series… we have a feeling that you will enjoy it!