CNN Hero calls Augustana College experience ‘transformational’

“Find your ‘why.’” That was the central piece of advice Augustana College graduate Nelly Cheboi shared with  students, faculty and media during a lecture the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year gave on the Rock Island college campus Wednesday, Jan. 11. “I got really lucky to know my ‘why’ early on,” said the founder of […]

“Find your ‘why.’” That was the central piece of advice Augustana College graduate Nelly Cheboi shared with  students, faculty and media during a lecture the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year gave on the Rock Island college campus Wednesday, Jan. 11. “I got really lucky to know my ‘why’ early on,” said the founder of the growing Techlit Africa nonprofit that helped her capture the coveted honor last month. She told the large crowd gathered at Augustana’s Lindberg Center that her “why” was to make a better life for her mother – who had sacrificed so much for her and her sisters. It’s also what led the young woman to make her way from the village of Mogotio, Kenya, to a liberal arts college more than 8,000 miles away. That path eventually would result in her joyously welcoming her mother to the stage on Dec. 11, 2022, as Ms. Cheboi accepted the CNN Hero award and the money to continue to expand her organization. Her journey to international stardom, Ms. Cheboi said, began when as a very young girl she watched her single mother put in long hours working by the roadside to eke out a living for her family.  Education in Kenya is expensive, she said, and it is considered wasted on girls, but Christina Cheboi made it a priority, Nelly Cheboi said of her mother. As a youngster, she became determined to find a way to use that education to give her mother the world and, later, to find a sustainable way to lift others out of poverty in her homeland. The latter goal inspired Ms. Cheboi as an Augustana junior to use the money she earned while working part-time to build Zawadi, a four-story school in Kenya. Ms. Cheboi credits her alma mater for helping her to attain her “why” by bringing her out of her shell and putting her on the path that led her to the CNN stage last month. “To say that Augie has been transformational for me is an understatement,” Ms. Cheboi said Wednesday. “When I came here, I was really scared. I left home, I left my family. I didn’t know anyone here.” She was determined to make good by keeping her head down, and working hard in school so, perhaps, someone would offer you a job. Ms. Cheboi said she was “a very shy girl,” and not at all like the young woman she is today who would not only make good on her promise to show her mother the world but share it with young people in rural areas of Kenya through her TechLit Africa. Short for Technologically Literate Africa, the nonprofit uses recycled computers to create technology labs for students. When Ms. Cheboi first came to the U.S., to her America was the Augustana community, she said. And after spending time on the campus of the nationally ranked liberal arts college, she said “I realized America is not scary.”  People were nice, friendly, and curious to learn about her and her life, which brought her out of her shell. “I came into a cushioning, where I could understand myself,” she said. Former Augustana College President Steven Bahls and his wife Jane Bahls, who serves as chair of TechLit Africa, had a front-row seat for Ms. Cheboi’s transformation.  She came to America under an Augustana scholarship program that waives tuition but not room and board. Trinity Lutheran Church paid for Ms. Cheboi’s room and board the first year, then the Bahls – who are members of the congregation – organized it for the next three.  When he first met Ms. Cheboi, Mr. Bahls said, “I saw kind of an uncertain person.” He said she was worried about such things as how am I going to navigate classes? Is my English good enough? Am I going to fit in? “Then you see her grow in confidence,” he said.  Quickly Ms. Cheboi became like a member of the Bahls family. “I think we celebrated every Thanksgiving and every Christmas together,” Mr. Bahls said. “Her growth has been amazing, it continues to be amazing,” he added. The admiration is mutual. Ms. Cheboi even singled the couple out for thanks during her speech on the CNN broadcast that announced her as the network’s 2022 Hero of the Year. The Bahls, who were in Montana at the time, organized a viewing party to watch the live program. Like many who saw Ms. Cheboi bring her mother to the stage and sing to her the song that she sang to her as a child to lift her spirits, Mr. Bahls said “We were in tears." For Ms. Cheboi, the unscripted moment with her mother “was miraculous. It was the most wonderful thing that could have happened and she was there.” In the days since winning the award, Ms. Cheboi has not been idle.  A software engineer at Fuzzy, a pet healthcare company, she continues to divide her time between Kenya and America and will continue to visit Augustana. For example, the TechLit Africa founder  – who came to Augustana in 2012, and earned a bachelor science in applied mathematics and computer science in 2016 – is set to deliver the address at the 163rd Commencement Convocation on May 27.

Kenya, however, will continue to be her home. In response to a faculty member’s question Wednesday, Ms. Cheboi said that unlike some international students in higher-ed institutions, she always intended to go back there. “I don’t think I ever left,” she said. She simply took trips to America and went back to Kenya whenever possible, by earning money to pay for her $800 ticket home. “I kept going back because I wanted a reminder of why” she believes so strongly in doing what she is doing, she said. She talked about a woman who had labored by the roadside with her mother since Nelly Cheboi was in the second grade. Every time she went back to Kenya, she said, she saw that woman working. “She’s still there,” Ms. Cheboi said, marveling at her strength: “How do you keep showing up when there’s no hope? It takes a lot of skill, it takes a lot of energy and power to show up when there is no hope. That’s what I think about.” It’s also why Ms. Cheboi asks herself whenever she’s making a decision, “Why am I doing this?” And importantly, how will it help her achieve her goal? “It’s a very powerful tool, ” she said. For example, it helped point her to a sustainable solution for poverty: giving people a job and a paycheck. Experience shows it’s working. The school she built while she was an Augie junior in 2015 is busy educating students in computer literacy using donated, refurbished equipment. Many of those who are being trained are getting remote computer-related jobs, and most importantly, paychecks, without ever having to leave Kenya, she said. The path hasn’t always been easy, admitted Ms. Cheboi, who went from knowing almost nothing about computers and technology when she first came to Augustana to educating others. But remembering the why has helped. “When I remember why I’m doing it, it makes it easy,” she said. She urged the crowd to find out “what is something I really care about,” and then begin working to make it happen.