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.
| More USAP Zimbabwe profiles |
Tariro Mupombwa
University of Pennsylvania '10
Harvard Medical School '14
Tariro Mupombwa, who grew up in the city of Kadoma, Zimbabwe, is pursuing residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center . She completed her Ordinary Levels at Goromonzi High and pursued her Advanced Levels at Regina Mundi High. Upon finishing high school, Tariro was accepted to the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Biochemistry, with a minor in Economics. At Penn, she was heavily involved in biochemistry and health care economics research. In February 2009, Tariro started a sewing machine project for Bumhudzo Old People's Home which is run by the Salvation Army in Zimbabwe. She was also involved with organizations such as the Penn African Students' Association, Vietnamese Students' Association, International Students Ambassador's Networking and volunteered at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Dean's Scholar Award. She was then accepted to and graduated from Harvard Medical School. While at Harvard, she was a non-resident tutor for Pforzheimer House and volunteered as a Junior Clinician through the Crimson Care Collaborative.
Tariro is currently doing her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She is interested in Women's Health and in particular the barriers to cervical and breast cancer care treatment in Zimbabwe. Therefore, she is pursuing a Global Health track and is carrying out research projects in Zimbabwe. She hopes to make a significant contribution to health care in Zimbabwe.
George Nyasha Baison
Columbia University '10
Harvard Medical School '14
Born and raised in the high-density suburb of Mkoba, Gweru, George is the last of three boys. After his education at Fletcher high school, George got admitted to Columbia University in the City of New York and was nominated to be in the Columbia Undergraduate Scholars Program. While at Columbia he undertook research in the lab, as well as in the field at various sites in Tanzania and Kenya. He was also involved in numerous campus organizations in different capacities. He graduated from Columbia in 2010 with a BA in Environmental biology, before pursuing his medical training at Harvard Medical School. While in medical school he was able to pursue global health research in Rwanda.
He is now pursuing his general surgery training at Tufts Medical Center.
Shelvean Kapita
Lafayette College '10
University of Delaware, PhD '15
Shelvean Kapita is a graduate research assistant at the University of Delaware. He grew up in Mhangura, and finished A-level education at Prince Edward School in Harare in 2004. He graduated from Lafayette College in 2010 Cum Laude with a BS (Hons) in Mathematics and a BA in Physics. In 2012, Shelvean earned an Master of Science degree in Applied Mathematics. He is currently conducting research for his PhD thesis in Applied Mathematics, where he is studying computational solutions to Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.
Respina Jani
Mount Holyoke College '10
Respina Jani was born and raised in Chiredzi, South-Eastern Zimbabwe. She left for Mount Holyoke College in August 2006 on a full scholarship, which she managed to secure with the help of USAP. She graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2010 with a double major in Mathematics and Economics. Respina is currently based in Boston city.
While at Mount Holyoke, Respina was involved in the Student Government Association and she enjoyed working with students. She was one of the 5 SGA bookkeepers serving the banking needs of more than 150 student's organizations on campus. She also served as a tutor for both the Economics and Mathematics departments.
During her spare time, Respina enjoys cooking, hanging out with other nationalities, and most importantly, dancing to music. She also dreams of becoming a professional dancer!
Tichakunda Mangono
Brown University '10
Tichakunda is Program Manager for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Washington D.C providing technical and advisory services to 3 southern African health ministries to scale-up interventions for HIV prevention. In 2014, Tichakunda managed a similar program at the country-level in Zimbabwe, helping to increase access to quality health interventions. Before joining CHAI Zimbabwe, he worked for a year in private equity, focusing on the agricultural value-chain and supporting viable sustainable agriculture projects for small-holder farmers.
Previously, Tichakunda worked as a management consultant for Oliver Wyman in Boston Massachusetts working with clients in the retail and finance sectors, on 10+ different projects ranging from promotions strategy in grocery chains to business transformation and M&A strategy in financial services.
Tichakunda holds a BSc (Honors) in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Brown University where he was actively involved in student government and international student affairs. In 2009, he led the Brown University team that organized the USAP 2009 Forum for international students and college advisors.
Tichakunda is always looking to network, professionally and socially. He enjoys music and dancing, especially the African drum and instruments from Southern Africa like marimba and mbira.
Auxilia Munhutu
Princeton University '10
From Harare, Zimbabwe Auxilia Munhutu is a member of the class of 2010 at Princeton University in Princeton New Jersey. She is an Electrical Engineering major getting certificates in African Studies, Materials Science and Robotics and Intelligent Systems. Auxilia is a member of many clubs on campus including Rotaract International, Global Development Initiative, the Princeton African Students Association, the National Society of Black Engineers for which she is senator, William Harris Society at Princeton and the Society of Women Engineers. She also plays intramural soccer and volleyball. In the summer of 2007 she did a research with a professor to design an affordable machine for the detection and treatment of cervical cancer, which she has incorporated into her nanofabrication independent work. She intends to go to graduate school at either Princeton or Duke and ultimately work as an Electrical Engineer with her own practice. Her dream is to own a five star hotel in Zimbabwe.
Tambudzai Kudze
Bennington College '10
Tambu, the youngest of six children, grew up in the cotton-growing town of Gokwe and attended Gokomere High school in Masvingo. Her selection into USAP was the beginning of new dreams. As an undergraduate, she studied Biology and Politics and was active in organizations such as Students for Social Justice, Student Educational Policies Committee and Wellness Committee. She also served as an orientation assistant and peer mentor to first year students. Tambu has completed internships in Molecular Biology at Princeton University and in Drug Discovery at Biogen Idec in Boston.
At graduation in 2010, she was selected onto the Bennington College Board of Trustees for a two year term as a Recent Graduate Trustee. She continues to be involved with her alma mater in various capacities. Her experience in various leadership roles underscored the value of good leadership and hopes to take on leadership roles as she pursues a career in medicine. Currently, she works as a Research Technician studying synaptic transmission in a neuroscience lab at Massachusetts General Hospital and volunteers with the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless Program. During her free time, Tambu enjoys knitting and crocheting as well as reviving her chess skills.
Tawanda Mashavave
Hamilton College '10
Tawanda is a Technical Solutions Consultant at Google in New York focusing on AdSense, AdExchange, AdMob and Custom Search Ads. He has been at Google since August 2012. He worked as a software developer at Goldman Sachs from July 2010 to August 2012 helping develop and support systems used for currency and commodity trade processing.
Tawanda did his primary education at Bindura Primary School, and then did both his Ordinary and Advanced Levels at Kutama College, in Norton. He won a Silver Medal in the Old Mutual Mathematics Olympiad in 2005. After graduating from Kutama College, he worked at CBZ Bank Limited from December 2005 to July 2006 before coming to the United States in August of 2006. At Hamilton College, he was a member of the Computer Science Programming Team and was a Math and Computer Science teaching assistant. Tawanda was also member of the West Indian and African Association, International Students Association and the Brothers Organization. He graduated magma cum laude with honors in Mathematics and Computer Science.
Fallon Chipidza
Hamilton College '10
Fallon Chipidza was born in Harare and grew up in Chitungwiza. She attended Vainona High School before she was awarded a scholarship to attend Regina Mundi Girls School. She was then accepted into USAP and then later enrolled into Hamilton College, New York.
At Hamilton, Fallon is majoring in Photography and Creative Writing with a minor in Chemistry. Fallon's goal is to increase awareness in public health issues and to empower women knowledge and skills for basic living. She hopes to study medicine upon graduation from Hamilton. Next year, Fallon will study abroad at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark where she will take biochemistry classes and research on HIV-related drugs.
At Hamilton, Fallon sings in the gospel choir, has been a resident advisor for the past two years, is a member of the Photography Society and is also a WHCL Radio DJ. Some of Chipidza’s interests include public speaking, critical writing and photojournalism. Fallon acknowledged that the most influential person in her life was her matron at Regina Mundi School, Sister Helen Ellen and without her guidance, she wouldn't have attained the heights she’s reached so far.
Kelvin Gorekore
Middlebury College '10
Kelvin is a computer science and economics double major and is minoring in mathematics. As a young child, Kelvin thought that one day he would be a physician but when he got to Middlebury, he immediately found interest in economics and computer science. He became very interested in robotics and artificial intelligence. In January 2008, he was involved in a project to demonstrate the basics of robotics to the Middlebury community. During the summer of the same year, he was involved in conducting research on robot navigation and stereo vision. He worked on developing and implementing image registration and alignment algorithms, object identification algorithms and image matching models.
In addition to robotics and artificial intelligence, Kelvin is also interested in the financial services industry. In May 2008, he was chosen to attend the Merrill Lynch 2008 Leaders of Tomorrow Academy where he enhanced his leadership, presentation, and networking skills while also gaining more knowledge about the financial services industry. During the summer of 2009, Kelvin will intern at Merrill Lynch as an applications developer. He hopes to go into information technology at a financial services firm after graduation.
When Kelvin is not in class, he enjoys playing cricket and intramural soccer. Currently, he is a member of the Middlebury College Cricket Team, African Students Organization (UMOJA) and International Students Organization.
Ashton Ngwenya
Manhattanville College '10
Ashton is an associate at Credit Suisse in the Equities division, based in New York. In 2008, Ashton was awarded the prestigious Douglas Paul Scholarship at Credit Suisse- a highly competitive scholarship/internship awarded to 12 students every year. Ashton holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Finance from Manhattaville College.
Ashton grew up at a farm school in Mazowe Citrus Estates in Zimbabwe. Prior to coming to the USA, he envisioned himself becoming a medical doctor, but eventually found a new and deep passion for investing. Ashton hopes to go back to Africa and use the skills and experience that he has garnered at Credit Suisse to invest in high quality, ethical and profitable businesses.
.[Back to Top]
| More USAP Zimbabwe profiles |