A New Beginning

GRADUATE’S JOURNEY TO A BETTER LIFE

Most Georgia Southern University students simply go home when they need a break or to see their families; however, that is a daunting journey for Lindah Kotut (’12), whose home in western Kenya is about 8,000 miles from Statesboro.

The University Honors graduate has not visited her family since she first arrived in the United States in 2008 to advance her education. “In Kenya, education is the only way out of poverty, especially for girls,” Kotut explained. “The opportunities that students born in the U.S. have are staggering. In my country, education was not free, even in elementary and high school. My parents had to pay for everything, including textbooks. I walked five miles to school to get there by six-thirty in the morning, but I always knew if I struggled, studied a lot and earned good grades I would make it.”

Fluent in English, Swahili and her tribal dialect of Kalenjin, Kotut sought to pursue her educational goals in the U.S. because she said it is at the forefront of her field of study – computer science. “I saw a computer for the first time in 2001 and was immediately captivated by the technology,” she said. “I began to read books about computers, and I could see in my mind how they worked, and I knew this was what I wanted to do.”

With an older sister and three younger brothers still in school, Kotut knew her family could not pay for college, so she trained as a cross-country runner to earn an athletic scholarship in the U.S. Her strategy worked and at age 19, she left Kenya to begin her academic journey in Georgia. She had never flown before. Her flight lasted 36 hours – taking her from Kenya to Dubai to New York to Albany, Ga., where she enrolled at Darton, a two-year college. While there, she set her sights on Georgia Southern to earn her bachelor’s degree. “I heard terrific things about the quality of the computer science program, and I also wanted to take advantage of the fact that I would not have to leave Georgia (my comfort zone),” she said.

With the help of a President’s Scholarship and a part-time job, Kotut graduated in December with a 3.63 GPA. She is currently working as a web developer in Georgia Southern’s Office of Marketing and Communications, but she will leave in August to enter the computer science graduate program at Virginia Tech. Kotut said she is grateful to the professors who encouraged her interest in research. “Any ideas that I had they were willing to look over and make suggestions. I was fortunate that way,” she added.

She plans to return to Kenya permanently, but not for a few years. “My life will start when I finish my master’s. I want to travel and work in different countries,” she said. “When I do return home, I will have the opportunity to do what I want because of my higher education degrees. In Kenya, opportunities for advancement are almost non-existent, especially for village women. You come out of nothing, so when you get a chance, you grab it with both hands and you don’t look back.”

– Sandra Bennett