Hey Novaneers!
My name is Lisa Mukoya Ochieng, a proud alumna of Nova Pioneer Tatu Girls (Class of 2022) and an incoming freshman at Princeton University, New Jersey—still very much undecided on my major, but leaning towards something STEM (or maybe humanities? Who knows, we’ll see).
Nova Pioneer played a huge role in shaping my journey, thanks to the incredible teammates who supported me every step of the way in high school. Special thanks to Mr. Otaka for guiding me through the application process and writing my counselor recommendation letter, and to Mrs. Melvin and Mr. Opiyo for their amazing subject recommendation letters. I’m deeply grateful.
After completing my K.C.S.E in December 2022, I spent my time at home waiting for results while working on coding projects (because what else do you do when you have way too much free time?). Then came January 2023, K.C.S.E results day. I was expecting good news, but I was still completely shocked when I saw my score: an A of 83/84 points, making me one of the top students in the country and the top girl in Ruiru Sub-county.
With those results, I was selected to join the Equity Leadership Program, which mentors top students countrywide into future leaders. During an intensive two-week job induction camp, we were trained on financial literacy, banking operations, fraud detection, and professional skills. After that, I began a six-month internship as a Relationship Officer at Equity Bank, Embakasi Branch. Alongside my internship, I joined the Equity College Counseling Program, where I prepared for the SAT, crafted my essays, and built my college applications.
I took my first SAT on August 23rd, 2023, scoring 1430/1600 (760 Math, 670 English). While I performed well in Math, the English section proved to be a challenge.
Around this time, I also joined the Kenya Robotics Team as the Assistant Team Captain and began working on building a robot for the FIRST Global Challenge in Singapore. The experience was incredible! I got hands-on with computer-aided design (CAD), deepened my knowledge of Java programming, and truly immersed myself in the world of robotics.
Then came the dreaded college application season, and let’s just say, it was brutal. I applied to 20 colleges in the US, and every single one of them rejected me. 20 out of 20. It felt like the universe had a vendetta against me, but deep down, I knew I couldn’t give up. I also explored other opportunities and was later awarded the full Türkiye Bursları Government Scholarship to study Computer Science at Ankara University. It was an amazing opportunity, but I took a massive risk and declined it to chase my American dream one more time.
Determined to improve my chances, I retook the SAT on October 5th, 2024. My English score went up, but Math decided to betray me that day (1380/1600—710 English, 670 Math). With a superscore of 1470, I still felt it wasn’t competitive enough, so I ultimately applied test-optional (without submitting my SAT scores).
This time, everything changed.
On March 27th, at exactly 2:07 a.m., I got the acceptance letter. “Congratulations!” My first-ever acceptance. And not just anywhere. Princeton University. The #1 ranked university in the U.S. offering me full funding. God came through for me!
I still got 10 rejections this cycle, but honestly? It doesn’t even matter. My American dream came true. I’m still in shock, but I know these next four years are going to be incredible.
To anyone out there chasing big dreams, keep going. Rejection is just redirection. Your moment is coming! And most importantly, trust in God. His timing is always perfect.
