Hey everyone! It’s been a while since we have released a blog post for you all, but today, we have someone who, although not officially on our team, we consider a vital member of our family – Kelvin!
Kelvin Kangethe was born in Kenya and is currently living there. He is 24-years-old and is the firstborn in his family. His younger sister has recently just graduated from university. Kelvin works with TME education and has played an important role in School For a Village’s several projects, particularly the Bootcamps Project and the Peer Learning Project. Kelvin has a background in electrical engineering but a lot of his knowledge in technology was self-taught or learned from his peers. He loves to learn about other people, what they are doing, and learn new skills from them.
Kelvin’s father passed away when he was just a young child. But he didn’t pass without leaving a huge mark on Kelvin’s life. Kelvin still possesses very fond memories of his father from when he was little. He picked up the guitar because his father used to play, and he had always wanted to be like his father because his father always pursued the knowledge through literature and was heavily invested in the field of linguistics.
At the moment, Kelvin is working with TME education as an ambassador and works heavily with technical skills and knowledge. Simply put, what Kelvin and TME education does is offer training related to electronics such as the use of circuits, programming, and computing. In addition to technology, Kelvin also likes to empower the youth with entrepreneurship and market-related business skills. They start mentoring from the basics and contribute to building up STEM education in Kenya. This has allowed him to work with many young people at the high school and college levels. He has also had the opportunity to work with a lot of driven, ambitious individuals with different ideas and knowledge. Also… sneak peek for y’all, but TME education is currently developing a guidebook filled with practical projects that students can try to do by themselves at home or school.
Kelvin realized his purpose approximately three years ago. Since then, he has sought every opportunity to fulfill his passion for inspiring young people. He seeks to make a difference in his local community by interacting with the youth. He believes that young people can learn from other people and there are always new things you can learn from friends and other people. This philosophy has not only helped him learn a lot about technology but also about life. One of Kelvin’s favorite accomplishments was in 2019 when he made arrangements and took the lead in enabling students in a robotics team to travel to Dubai for their first robotics competition. The planning was a hectic process, but it was very much worth it in the end. But what makes it his favorite accomplishment was the fact that the team was representing the nation of Kenya in a competition where many countries were represented.
Through TME education, we were able to work very closely with Kelvin, and our team is very grateful for his contributions to our projects. Kelvin has expressed that working with our team in Kenya has been amazing. The boot camps that we had hosted were to him: “the best boot camp he has ever done”. It just warms his heart that he has the opportunity to inspire and help people, especially young people, as it is like planting a seed that will grow.
In Kelvin’s free time, he loves to not only listen to music but to play the guitar. He likes going outdoors and getting involved with sports such as paintball and archery because he loves getting the adrenaline rush from these competitive sports. He also watches YouTube. In general, Kelvin is a jack of all trades. He likes to try new things and loves to learn about everything. He also loves to just think in his free time. One of his dreams is to become an astronaut. Kenya currently does not have a space station, but he loves learning about the atmosphere. He loves learning about space and how things work there. In the future, he would like to learn more about astrophysics. Hopefully, one day he will fulfill his dream of going to space!
Kelvin considers finding one’s purpose to be incredibly important in all aspects of life. To find one’s purpose, he exclaims that first, you must sit down and ask yourself what you love the most and what makes you happy. Maybe you love art, or maybe you love soccer or sports. Now, ask yourself, is this something that you would do for the rest of your life? If the answer is yes, then it gives you the idea to put more focus on it. He says that it is not that easy to find one’s purpose. When you are born, your parents are the main influence of your life, but it is important to find your purpose, and not just spend your life doing what your parents what you to do. It is important to find a mentor later on in life – a mentor who wants the best for you and has gone through what you have gone through.
Kelvin likes all genres of music. He likes African music, gospel music… if you look at his playlist, you will see all sorts of different music. His favorite STEM subjects back in school were geology and physics. He loved going to the lab and experimenting. One of his favorite fictional characters is Spider Man because he can escape very tricky situations in clever ways. Before our interview ended, Kelvin left the message that he loved working with School For a Village, and is looking forward to continuing their collaboration in projects. He wants to tell young people to believe in themselves, be willing to learn from others, and always be positive, work hard, and be disciplined. Discipline and character are ultimately what make the difference. A lot of people have many interests, but when it matters the most, they do not show up.
