Thanks to Donor, Lifelong Dream Comes True for Kenyan

EUGENE, Ore.--Thanks to a scholarship for African students funded by Eugene ophthalmologist John Haines, Vincent Konchellah of Kenya graduated on June 11, and proudly carryied the banner of his department, International Studies.

And he'll be able to create a better life for his community back home.

Vincent grew up with 22 siblings in a Masai farming village of mud-and-stick homes with no running water or electricity, where fewer than 10 percent make it through high school. The only school was a clearing in the bush. Vincent was the first in his family of seven to see education as a path to a better life.

After graduating, he hopes to attend graduate school, and eventually help improve living conditions and education in his country.

“This is part of what I think I owe my community because I have the knowledge,” he says.