Like many teenagers, 15-year-old Asma Shariff loves to play sports. But she is especially grateful for the opportunity to participate in football, basketball, and track and field because she comes from Garissa, a town in north-eastern Kenya where girls aren’t allowed to play sports, are typically married by the age of 15 and aren’t encouraged to pursue education. Asma was selected through a unique talent identification process in which the Academy reaches out to schools across the country to bring together the brightest students from all over Kenya, regardless of their economic means.

As of now, 22 members of this year’s graduating class from Mombasa have received scholarships worth a total of 2.6 million US dollars, while in Hyderabad, the first graduating class is in the midst of fielding offers from top-ranked universities in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom and has already received offers totalling 1.5 million US dollars.

For Taher Ezzi, starting his MBA this fall at Harvard is the culmination of a dream. Taher graduated from the Academy in Mombasa in 2008 and went on to Stanford University for a Mechanical Engineering degree and a Master’s in Management Science. He believes the Academy played a large role in getting him to this point.