Usap Alumni
Since its inception in 1999, Usap has been graduating students from some of the best institutions of education, mainly in the United States. The alumni network is very diverse, highly qualified in various professions and spread around the globe. All our current alumni are from Zimbabwe. Beginning 2008, students from other countries will begin joining the alumni list as they graduate from their respective institutions. Below are the profiles of our alumni
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'
Farai Jena is currently based in Washington, DC where she works as an Associate Microfinance Analyst at the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), a microfinance unit based in the World Bank.
She graduated from Mount Holyoke College with a BA in Mathematics and Economics. In college, she was actively involved in community development projects which saw her serving as a residential advisor and community service volunteer, among other things. She also spent her junior year in college at Sussex University in England. Farai has interned with Deutsche Bank in London as a Corporate Finance Analyst, and with Public Financial Management in Pennsylvania as a Trading Desk intern.
Usap has played a vital role in her life, without which she could never have dreamed of pursuing higher education abroad, or accomplished what she has so far.
After acquiring a few years’ work experience, Farai hopes to pursue advanced studies in Economic and Public Policy which will equip her with the skills she needs to implement solutions to improve badly tailored policies prevalent in many developing countries. She wants to work towards advising governments on public policy issues, and also assessing current programs and their effects on local communities.
Munyaradzi Julius Chaunzwa
Brandeis University 06'
Munyaradzi currently lives in New York were he is an Analyst in the Leverage Finance/Merchant Banking group at BNP Paribas. Prior to this he had interned in Investment Banking at Goldman Sachs and as an Actuarial Analyst at Quantum Consultants and Actuaries based in Harare Zimbabwe.
Munyaradzi was born and raised in Chikurubi, Zimbabwe and he has three younger brothers, Tawanda, Tafadzwa and Talent. After finishing high school at Howard Munyaradzi attended Brandeis University where he was a Wein International Scholar and Graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in Economics (minors in Mathematics and International Business). He was awarded the Cohen award for best work in Economics for his senior thesis paper (Investigating the Economic Value Add of Advanced Technical Trading Strategies in Currency Markets).
While at Brandeis, Munyaradzi was a teaching assistant for various Mathematics and Economics classes with various professors which include Calculus, Global Economics, Macro-Economics and International Finance.
As a young man on Wall Street, Munyaradzi's interests include: business development, investing in and financing growth for middle market companies and strategic management. However, Munyaradzi's deeper passion lies with Macro-Economics and Economic Development and he hopes to work in Macroeconomic Policy Development when he goes back home to Zimbabwe, in the near future.
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.
David Tatenda Tswamuno
Middlebury College 06'
David Tswamuno was born and raised in Mutare, Zimbabwe. He attended Middlebury College where he graduated with a BA (Hons) in Economics (with minors in Mathematics, Music and French). 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 is currently based in New York where he is an analyst in the Financial Institutions Group at Credit Suisse Securities, specializing in Asset Management and Specialty Finance Investment Banking. Previously, he interned at the OECD in Paris and in Industrials Corporate Finance at Credit Suisse.
David is keen on topics that explore the role of capital markets and private enterprises in economic development. In the future, he intends to work in private equity, sponsoring middle-market companies in Africa. During his spare time, David enjoys producing music, attending church, going out with friends and reading.
More Usap Alumni Profiles