USAP Zimbabwe Profiles
Since it's inception in 1999, USAP has helped tens of Zimbabwean students get accepted to top notch colleges in the United States. Some have since graduated and are working in various fields in the United States and elsewhere around the world and some have chosen to remain in academia at various instituations in the United States. There are over a hundred USAP students from Zimbabwe alone and each one of them has an amazing story to tell. Below are brief profiles of some of our students just to give you a glimpse of our diversity as a people as well as the diversity of our their career paths and futures.
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Munyaradzi Julius Chaunzwa
Brandeis University '06
Harvard Business School '11
Munyaradzi currently lives in San Francisco and works for eBay Inc. in the Corporate Development (Mergers & Acquisitions) team that originates and executes Principal Investments for the firm. Prior to this he worked in Investment Banking and Private Equity at several firms including Emerging Capital Partners, BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs.
Munyar grew up in Harare, Zimbabwe where he cherished sharing his childhood with his three younger brothers: Tawanda (Ceasars), Tafadzwa (Lawrence) and Talent (Morgan). His professional interests are focused on entrepreneurial finance, technology driven business ventures and investing in disruptive business models. He has a deep passion for the application of technology and entrepreneurship in solving problems and building sustainable business ventures. Munyar hopes to apply lessons learned in Finance, Technology and Macro-Economics to help influence and shape business and economic policy in Southern Africa in the future.
Munyar holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Economics from Brandeis University. He also received Highest Honors in Economics for his senior thesis paper: Investigating the Economic Value Add of Advanced Technical Trading Strategies in Currency Markets. In his spare time, Munyar enjoys discourse in contemporary development and political economics, hanging out with friends & family, mentoring students & younger professionals with similar interests and playing sports.
David Tatenda Tswamuno
Middlebury College '06
Stanford Graduate School of Business '12
David is currently based in Greenwich, Connecticut where he is an Associate at Emil Capital, a Venture Capital firm that invests in emerging products and services that impact consumer lifestyles and wellness including education, communication and technology. Prior to this, David spent four years with Credit Suisse, first as an Investment Banking Analyst in the Financial Institutions Group and as an Associate in the Principal Investing and Strategy Group.
David received an MBA in 2012 from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a BA in Economics (honors) and Mathematics from Middlebury College in 2006. David's senior thesis titled, "Financial Liberalization and Economic Growth: Lessons from the South African Experience", was published in the September 2007 edition of the International Journal of Applied Economics (IJAE).
David was born in Mutare, Zimbabwe, but spent his early childhood in Nairobi, Kenya. David is passionate about entrepreneurship and economic development. David is also interested in the arts (live music) and clean energy. In the future, David hopes to channel his skills to invest in, coach and collaborate with entrepreneurs in Southern Africa to build businesses that are ethical, impactful and profitable. Outside of work, David enjoys attending church, producing music, creating and discussing business ventures and hanging out with family and friends.
Tendai Mashonjowa
Mount Holyoke College '06
Tendai was born and raised in Harare, Zimbabwe. She says being selected into USAP was a turning point for her. The program gave her an opportunity to study at a liberal arts college, which allowed her to explore various fields of study and not just follow the career path that her family members had already set out for her. She’s even had fun in a Studio Art class one semester, despite the fact that she is terrible at drawing. Since she began school in 1989, Mathematics has always been her favorite subject and it has grown into a passion of working with numbers.
Tendai graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and Economics and is currently working at Bank of Montreal in Canada. She is also a CFA candidate and plans to become a charterholder by 2010. Without USAP, she would have been following someone else's dream not hers. She hopes the experience she is gaining will be valuable to her country in the near future. Apart from her career and studying, Tendai loves photography, knitting and making jewelery.
Farai Jena
Mount Holyoke College '06 (B.A. in Economics & Mathematics)
University of Sussex '10 (M.Sc in Economics)
University of Sussex '13 (Ph.D in Economics)
Farai Jena is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. Her research is on the determinations and impact of migration and remittances in Kenya. At Sussex, Farai is also in charge of delivering lectures and seminars in Applied Statistics for Finance and Economics to undergraduate students. In the summer, she teaches a pre-masters course in Statistics to incoming Economics and Finance masters' students. Farai holds an MSc in Economics from the University of Sussex and a BA in Mathematics and Economics from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She has worked for the World Bank as an associate microfinance analyst with CGAP (a microfinance policy and research centre), and as a consultant with DECPG (the Development Economics Prospects Group). She also has experience in investment banking through internships she has done in the U.S and U.K.
Garikai "Gazah" Govati
London School of Economics and Political Science 05'
Wesleyan University '06
Born and raised in a high density suburb of Harare, Mbare, Gazah attended Chirodzo Primary School for seven years and Harare High School for six years. He was accepted into USAP in 2001 and was accepted into Wesleyan University on an academic scholarship. He studied Mathematics-Economics and developed an interest in Dance and Music.
During his time at Wesleyan, he was a letter-winner on the Wesleyan men's varsity soccer team. He was also involved in a number of projects of which organizing the first USAP conference with full funding from Wesleyan and the IMPACT microfinance project stand out the most. He also had a privilege to go back to Zimbabwe during the summer after his sophomore year to work with the US Embassy in the educational affairs section helping upcoming students.
Gazah spent his junior year abroad at the London School of Economics after which he interned twice at Merrill Lynch in Investment Banking and then in Global Markets. After graduation, he joined Merrill Lynch's Real Estate Finance/ Structured Finance/CMBS team.
Gazah currently resides in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he works for a private equity firm called Emerging Capital Partners which specializes on investments in African companies across the continent.
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