Tears of joy at JKIA as Tracy Oketch leaves for US after landing North Cedar Academy scholarship

It was tears of joy at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport as Tracy Oketch bid farewell to her family who had escorted her to the airport as leave for America.Her Journey is not just the usual trips but one that has been characterized by patience, hard work and a zeal for success. Tracy Oketch was one of the lucky students who has been accepted by the North Cedar Academy, Wisconsin State America on a partial scholarship alongside students from Rwanda and Ethiopia.Tracy who until August this year was a from one student at the Alliance Girls High School is catching up with life in Wisconsin where she plans to finish her Prepatory education before joining university to pursue architecture.Tracy started pursuing her dream of studying abroad when she fast sat for the Standard Secondary Admission Test (SSAT).READ: Video: Two foreigners nabbed in Westlands with fake foreign currencies amounting to 1 billion shillings“I did the exam in February. They marked it and sent to the school. The exam was also sent to other schools that use that system,” said Tracy. According to records from Makini school where she sat her KCPE, Tracy has proved to a bright student all through having scored 421 marks out to 500.Her grades saw her being chosen as one of the top eight students by Makini school to sit for SSAT exams for an opportunity to study in Choate Rosemary Hall school but the institution took long to respond, according to Tracy’s mother Evelyn Oketch, a counselling psychologist and adjunct lecturer at Marist UniversityThey opted to take up the North Cedar Academy since other school offered very little or no support at all.“They put her on the wait list. And we are still waiting. Many didn’t have scholarships or their levels of support were too low,” said Mrs Okech. “We acknowledged receipt of their emails and just applied to the ones that had scholarships,” she said.Tracy was subjected to series of tests and interviews before she successfully secured a spot in the US school where she currently. At times she was forced to break from Alliance Girls High School to undertake the exams.READ: Uhuru to UNGA: Africa is a net exporter of capital to the world through illicit outflows“Essay topics covered issues like where I would like to go on vacation, the advantages and disadvantages of online money, the movie that you have watched, the person that inspires you most and such,” said Tracy.The daughter to editor, columnist and experienced Journalism lecturer Oketch Kendo was advised by the father on her departure to pursue with zeal what she always dreamt of.“Work hard and do exactly what you say you want to do. Open up your mind and be a child of the world,” Kendo said