JOURNEY

• March 1, 2023 – In a recent Leadership Development Workshop, we explored the question, “How can you make sure the pain of your past doesn’t determine your future?” What stood out and meant the most to you in this workshop? Emma said: “What stood out the most to me during this workshop is that my background doesn’t determine my future because the power is in my hands to design my destiny. I also learned that being alive and putting God first is one of the precious gifts that I have in my life.”
• September 8, 2022 – Emma shared the biggest change in her life since the end of the COVID restrictions: “The biggest positive change is being able to hug my friends freely and attending weddings and other events with no restrictions.”
• September 13, 2021 – Emma shared her favorite song and what it means to her: “This song is called “Papa” by Vestine & Dorcas: https://youtu.be/46ybIcqRVUU. I love to listen to it because it tells us that God is our Father and we are his children, so he is going to give us everything a father can give to his children. So, whenever I am feeling hopeless, I listen to it and it strengthens me.”
• July 16, 2021 – Emma shared what resilience means to her: “For me, resilience means never giving up in hardships and difficulties, but to continue working hard so that we may find solutions.”
• March 1, 2021 – Emma said her biggest lessons from 2020 were: “2020 taught me that the future is not certain, that we must always be ready for a change. In addition, it taught me to save money for uncertain circumstances and always be ready to turn challenges into opportunities.”
• December 1, 2020 – I am studying Electrical Power Engineering at the University of Rwanda. My dream is to solve energy problems in Rwanda by bringing eco-friendly sources of energy!
• July 1, 2020 – We asked our students what makes them proud of their culture, and Emma said: “Our language (Kinyarwanda) is my favorite thing in our culture. It unites Rwandans through conversation. It help us in business, helps us to explore our culture and talents through songs and poems, thus exhibiting our country to young ones as well as the whole world.”
• March 30, 2020 – Emma speaks English, Kinyarwanda and a little French.
• March 30, 2020 – Emma said cold juice is her favorite drink.
• September 1, 2019 – Emma got an internship with an electric company called Central Electrical International Limited, based in Kenya, but the company has branches across East Africa! She is working on a site in Kigali where they are building a hospital! She said, “my main role is to work with other electricians and do the electrical installation of that hospital! Some of my daily tasks are: – putting electric wires in tubes according to the electrical drawing of the house – putting metallic and electric cable trays on the building. (this requires drilling and I have learned using the drilling machine. A great experience for me!) – installing lightning and thunder protector as well as earthing to protect the building – testing if the electric tubes work properly by using the steel tape – welding some metals It is an amazing experience for me for real! I am working on practical things to help me understand all that goes into electrical engineering! I hope to upgrade my level and be able to design too. The people from the site are friendly and they help me to understand everything very well. I hope to do this internship for 3 months!”
• May 18, 2019 – Let me start with what I learned at the monthly trainings. I learned how I can become a leader of my life. How I can impact my life and the life of others by just planning and executing my daily goals. I learned how I can manage my school schedule and social life. I learned how to prioritize things on my timetable by starting with what is most important. There is a saying that I heard in girls’ dinner that is “carry your pot” this saying changed my life for real. Here the “pot” signifies our lives. Every time when I am about do something, I first think if it can break my “pot” or strengthen it. At school I also learned a lot, I learned how to do many things in a short time, how to work under pressure and how to interact with others easily as I was new at the campus.
• February 9, 2019 – When asked to define servant leadership, how that applies to her life now, and her future career, Emma said: “Servant leadership is a style of leading people by serving them. In my daily life, I like to help people by giving them advice and providing them some skills. And in the future, after graduation I will serve my community using the knowledge and skills that I am acquiring in my studies and These Numbers Have Faces monthly trainings.”
• November 19, 2018 – Emma wants to be known as a successful electrical engineer who solved energy problems in Rwanda. This semester she is hopeful that she will get good grades!