From Our Scholars: Nkem Jeferson

“As a young boy, I was always interested in science and in how things worked. I liked trying to fix things and make them work better. I discovered my passion for aerospace engineering and electronics when one day, tuning into National Geographic, I watched a documentary on rockets and space travel. I became curious about what lies beyond this earth. At that point, I said to myself "I need to design my own rocket!". Waking up everyday with this thought in mind has motivated me to work hard towards that goal. I was able to make some model rockets, robots and drones, as I knew that making these would give me some insight into building the real rocket. With some of these self taught skills, I've been able to influence my friends. Together we've been working on projects that could help out communities to use technology to improve water systems, or by building emergency backup lighting systems. I know doing this will make youths be more conscious of the problems in our society and I hope to encourage more of them to use technology to bring solutions to these problems, and help foster growth.”