Wakhusama wins YDS Alumni Award
Evalyn M. Wakhusama '01, '02 STM, was awarded the Lux et Veritas Award "for excellence and distinction in applying the compassion of Christ to the diverse needs of the human condition" at the YDS Alumni Awards dinner on Tuesday, October 11. She is the founder of the Women's Initiative in Knowledge and Survival in Kenya, whose biggest project to date is the Nambale Magnet School, founded in 2009. This school seeks to educate children orphaned or made vulnerable by the AIDS crisis—taking extremely disadvantaged students at the beginning of primary school. Currently in its third year of operation, the school now has 134 students. Wakhusama is an ordained priest in the Anglican Church of Kenya.
The school was founded in partnership with Christ Church, Bethany, CT, where Wakhusama did her internship while a YDS/BDS student. Rector Peter Stebinger and Associate Kate Heichler (shown in the photo with Evalyn, her husband, and Dean Joseph Britton) were then instrumental in gathering support for the project once Evalyn returned to Kenya. This collaboration was a case study in BDS's Leadership Colloquium last spring.