Akilah Graduate Phyllis Kabano on Pursuing 2 Diplomas at Once
Phyllis Kabano graduated from the Akilah Institute and Mount Kenya University in 2017.
Akilah students share an impressive dedication to their studies and careers. Many students hold jobs, join clubs, start new ventures, and volunteer in their communities, all while pursuing their education. Others go even further and earn extra credentials for their future career path.
Phyllis Kabano is a prime example. While pursuing her Diploma in Business Management & Entrepreneurship at Akilah, Phyllis also earned a bachelor’s degree in information science from Mount Kenya University. Here is how she did it.
Hard work and a lot of focus
Just a few weeks after Phyllis Kabano graduated from the Akilah Institute’s Business Management & Entrepreneurship Diploma program in November 2017, she was back in a graduation gown. This time, she graduated from Mount Kenya University, where she had been pursuing a bachelor’s degree in information science with a major in ICT.
For three years, Phyllis’ days were tightly packed from early morning to late evening studying both programs.
“I had a hard time deciding which career path I wanted to follow, so I decided to study two different programs at two different institutions to keep my options open. For me, it has been a major motivation to get a broader scope of knowledge and to get exposed to so many different things at the same time,” Phyllis explains.
Phyllis graduated from Mount Kenya University only a few weeks after graduating from the Akilah Institute.
Phyllis started her studies at Mount Kenya University in Kigali in May 2014 and joined Akilah in September 2014. For the next three years, she followed a strict routine that allowed her to combine her daytime studies at Akilah with her evening classes at Mount Kenya University.
“I would wake up at 5 a.m. and get to Akilah at 6:40 a.m. so I could use my time before class started at 8 a.m. to go through my assignments. After school ended at 3 p.m., I would make sure I had finished all my assignments, go home to freshen up, and be ready for class at Mount Kenya at 6 p.m.,” Phyllis explains.
“It was very busy. It’s possible to do it, but it requires a lot of work, planning, and sacrifice,” she adds.
Phyllis did more than finish both programs. She excelled. On graduation day at Akilah, Phyllis was salutatorian — the title given to the student with the second-highest grades in the class.
Just a few weeks later, she graduated from Mount Kenya University with a first-class degree with honors.
The best from both worlds
Studying at two higher learning institutions at the same time gave Phyllis a unique insight into different ways of teaching, learning, and collaborating, she says.
“At Akilah, you are constantly challenged to be thinking and working with your peers, and you are required to do a lot of projects. They will give you the information you need to get started, but there is a lot of learning you need to create yourself and by collaborating with your classmates. At Mount Kenya, there are more lectures and less projects, and the assignments we were given would be more academically focused than at Akilah.
At Akilah, they focus a lot on creativity and productivity, and at Mount Kenya, they focus more on theory and on writing,” Phyllis explains.
For Phyllis, being exposed to different topics and learning environments meant that she developed a stronger sense of which way she wanted to go — and how she wanted to get there.
“The program at Akilah changed everything for me. Studying at Akilah challenged me to learn a lot and open myself to the world of entrepreneurship, which I had no concept of prior to my studies. Akilah was more engaging than my classes at the university. I was challenged to be involved, which made me enjoy it more and see that entrepreneurship and business development are what I want to do.”
“I had a hard time deciding which career path I wanted to follow, so I decided to study two different programs at two different institutions to keep my options open. For me, it has been a major motivation to get a broader scope of knowledge and to get exposed to so many different things at the same time.”
In class, Phyllis found that studying in different environments gave her tools and knowledge that were useful across both institutions.
“At Mount Kenya, people were not very used to group projects. I could see that I approached it quite differently than my colleagues because I was so used to it from Akilah. At the same time, some of the courses I did at Mount Kenya would be very useful for me at Akilah,” Phyllis says.
While it requires a tremendous work ethic and motivation to do two programs at once, Phyllis would recommend it to others willing to work hard. She expects that the career opportunities open to her will be worth all the hard work.
“I feel like I have a wide range of careers to choose from because I did both programs. It gives me something extra and opens more doors. I dream of doing business development with ICT as a driving force to create business solutions. That would be the perfect combination for me.”