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Welcome to the School of Pure and Applied Sciences.

Advice to Graduating Class

It gives me great pleasure to congratulate the graduating class for their hard work. Today we join their families and friends in celebrating their achievements. You now join an exceptionally talented and influential group of the School of Pure and Applied Sciences students who graduated ahead of you and are in the Nation’s workforce. The School has postgraduate Programmes and offers relevant degree courses at Masters level which you are welcome to join. As you embark upon and progress through your careers, I urge you to always remember why you chose your respective fields and the sacrifices that you made. This is my message to you: As you make career decisions, be sure to embrace all possible opportunities that offer you a job or, better still, enable you to create a job for yourself and other people. We encourage you to be inspired by Bob Shaye who upon graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree founded a movie production company. Shortly after, he ventured into production of low budget movie hits like ‘Nightmare’ and went on to produce world-famous movies such as ‘The Blockbusters’. Strive to rebrand and repackage yourself with continuous training and adoption of new technologies to keep climbing up the economic ladder. You owe it to yourself to do what you love and to earn the amount of money you cut out for yourself. In all these endeavours, keep your faith in God. In some circumstances, your faith in God shall be the only hope that will remain when everything else becomes challenging. Pursuing ambitious goals will take a lot of your energy, so don’t waste any energy and time in controversy. Make a decision to like the people because you need all sorts of people to buy your products and without them, you cannot be in business.

If you live by practicing ethical standards, you will inspire confidence in others and feel proud of yourself. All you have is your reputation, and you shouldn’t trade it for anything. You can always get another job or another client, but you can’t get another you: Your family and friends are your greatest source of strength. Indeed, you would not be here today without the love and support of the people closest to you. One of the greatest challenges you will face is balancing your personal and professional lives. At the end of the day, your impact on the world is greatest through the people you love. You matter more to them than to anyone else. They will be forgiving, but don’t make them forgive you too much. Your successes will be sweeter, and your disappointments will be easier to bear if you have the love and support of family and friends. I give special thanks to parents, spouses, children and friends of our graduands for their patience, understanding, sacrifices and support, both moral and financial - during these challenging, but rewarding, years at the University. Although their guidance, comfort and encouragement certainly will continue to be sought and appreciated in the years to come, you can rejoice in your new status in society. You are now a graduate of the highest institution of learning. Relish the shared feeling of pride in what your degree has accomplished and the abundant opportunities ahead. In the coming years, I would ask that you do not forget the School of Pure and Applied Sciences of the University of Embu. I encourage you to not only give back to the University by supporting our activities, programmes and scholarships but also by keeping us updated on the many achievements you will experience in your careers and personal lives. We will always take great pride in your achievements.

Spearheading Innovation and Knowledge Incubation
I am proud to release skilled graduates of high integrity who will serve the Nation of Kenya with a zeal of patriotism. There is no doubt that by use of the training and experience gained, you shall be able to make your special contribution to the Vision 2030, Science and Technology goals and the Sustainable Development goals among other pillars of our economy.  This indeed is a remarkable achievement since these are the cardinal drivers of our Schools’ vision.  Today, you are crowned to enhance the mandate of our beloved University with respect to academic, research and extension to improve the lives of humanity. I  advise you to spend more of your time in innovation and knowledge incubation centres that are critical links to the discovery of new technology and ideas. Consequently, this shall provide opportunities for research application that comes in handy to solve societal problems through extension work and outreach activities. To this effect, the role of research cannot be overemphasized.  The School of Pure and Applied Sciences is at the forefront to contribute to the pool of highly qualified personnel who shall create jobs in the twenty-first century. As you take your place in the diverse and expansive world of work, seize the opportunities created countrywide for internship as entrenched in the Government policies to enhance your experience for advancing your marketability. The School of Pure and Applied Sciences shall continuously try to bench-mark with other universities not only within the region but also globally. This will definitely ensure the global competitiveness of our graduates. I wish to encourage you to continue in this path and increase your efforts in mainstreaming the education and skills development of young people in our Country.

I am glad to be the one to remind you that you stand here today because you took the opportunity to walk through life confidently and you were open to self-improvement and that which is going to best help you evolve because that is really why you chose to study. You have the opportunity to use your education to do good. I hope you strive for more than just the good feeling that service provides, that doing good actually makes you better. Therefore, whatever field you choose, if you operate from the paradigm of service, I know your life will have more value and you will be happy. Use your job as a platform to serve others. Always remember that whether you’re an actor, you offer your talent in the way that most inspires art. If you’re an anatomist, you look at your gift as knowledge and service to healing. Whether you are a cleaner, you embrace your job as you would your home. Whether you’ve been called, like many of you here today getting degree certificates and other accolades, when you choose to offer your skills through the paradigm of talent in service, everything you do turns from a job into a gift.  To move forward you have to give back. Especially to our community which has contributed to your development. To me, that is the greatest lesson of my life. To be happy, you have to give something back, you know that because that’s a lesson that is woven into the very fabric of humanity. It’s a lesson that your education has enhanced in you. I wish to end with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Junior which said, “Not everybody can be famous. But everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service.”
You don’t have to know Einstein’s theory of relativity to serve and you don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace and a soul generated by love. May your service be the highlight of this day – your graduation day.
Congratulations.

Scientific Equipment from Seeding Labs
The University of Embu is one of the 16 universities selected to receive research and teaching equipment through Seeding Labs’ Instrumental Access programme.

On 8th December 2016,  University of Embu (UoEm) received a shipment of lab equipment from Seeding Labs’  Instrumental Access programme. UoEm received a container with nearly 6 tons of lab equipment and supplies that will support teaching and research in the Department of Biological Sciences.  Seeding Labs, a US-based NGO supported by USAID’s Global Development Lab, chose 16 outstanding university departments in 11 countries for the 2016 Instrumental Access programme after a rigorous application process. Universities then selected items from Seeding Labs’ inventory to meet their individual teaching and research needs. Instrumental Access equipment advances cutting-edge research, expands training opportunities for students, and  enhances the infrastructure that is critical to a thriving scientific community. Each shipment contains equipment donated to Seeding Labs from US-based research institutes and corporations in the life sciences, biotechnology, higher education, and manufacturing sectors; 24 donors contributed equipment to UoEm’s shipment.   The Department of Biological Sciences will use the donated  equipment to establish on-site teaching labs for both undergraduate and graduate students. This will eventually benefit more than 700 undergraduate and postgraduate students per year. The University also plans to use the enhanced research capacity to build new collaborations in the region and eventually establish a Center of  Excellence in natural product discovery from microorganisms. “The Equipment donation enormously enhances our capability to offer practical hands-on training in the life sciences, a capacity that lacks in most of  the Kenyan Universities,” said Prof. Kiplagat Kotut, Ag. Vice-Chancellor in charge of  Academics, Research Extension at the University of  Embu. “Being a young institution, we have a golden chance to break new ground and introduce modernized courses that are responsive to the market needs. Access to adequate equipment will greatly help us in delivering quality education to our students as we prepare them for the job market or careers in academia,” said Dr. Romano Mwirichia, Director,  Research and Extension at the  University of  Embu.  “Despite the abundance of scientific talent around the world, lack of equipment is a simple but widespread barrier that can prevent talent from being expressed at its fullest. We are excited that our partnership with the University of  Embu will allow students to receive hands-on scientific education and will give researchers additional capacity to pursue scientific solutions to issues facing Kenya and beyond,” said Nina Dudnik, PhD, Seeding Labs’ founder and CEO.

Equipment for the Microbiology Laboratory

Seeding Labs, a US-based NGO supported by USAID’s Global Development Lab, chose 16 outstanding University departments in 11 countries for the 2016 Instrumental Access program after a rigorous application process. Instrumental Access makes high-quality laboratory equipment and supplies available to university departments in developing countries to advance cutting-edge research, expands training opportunities for students, and enhances the infrastructure that’s critical to a thriving scientific community.
We are happy to report that University of Embu is one of the 16 universities that were selected to receive research and teaching equipment. The university will soon receive a container with nearly 6 tons of lab equipment and supplies that will support teaching and research in the Department of Biological Sciences. The shipment contains equipment donated to Seeding Labs from US-based research institutes and corporations in the life sciences, biotechnology, higher education,  and manufacturing sectors; 24 donors contributed equipment to Embu’s shipment.
The Department of Biological Sciences and other departments within the University will use equipment to establish on-site teaching labs for undergraduate and graduate students. “Being a young institution, we have a golden chance to break new ground and introduce modernized courses that are responsive to the market needs,” says Dr. Romano Mwirichia, senior lecturer of microbiology at Embu. “Access to adequate equipment will greatly help us in delivering quality to our students as we prepare them for the job market or careers in academia.”
ABOUT SEEDING LABS
Seeding Labs is a Boston-based nonprofit organization that catalyzes scientific progress in the developing world by equipping scientists with the tools, training, and connections they need to be at the cutting edge of global discovery. Working with corporate and academic partners,
Seeding Labs has provided more than $3.8million in surplus lab equipment and training programs to scientists at 43 universities and research institutions in 26 countries since 2003. Seeding Labs is supported by USAID’s Global Development Lab and was named one of Fast Company magazine’s top 10 most innovative not-for-profit companies in 2015.

EQUIPMENT DONATION FROM THE ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT FOUNDATION
In March this year, we received a donation of molecular biology laboratory equipment worth 20,000 Euros from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany. The equipment grant was awarded  to Dr. Romano Mwirichia from the Department of Biological Sciences to enable him continue the research he had started in Germany under the Georg Forster Research Fellowships for postdoctoral researchers.


 
This fellowship is offered by the  Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to enable highly qualified scientists and scholars from abroad who are just embarking on their academic careers and who completed their doctorates less than 4 years ago to spend extended periods of research (6-24 months) in Germany.
The research fellowship programme is financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (Bundesministerium fur wirtschafliche Zusammenarbeit and Entwwicklung - BMZ),  Germany. The motto of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation is “Once a Humboldtian, always a Humboldtian” and, therefore, more funding and collaborations are in the offing.

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