A winding road that led Akinyi Okero ’25 from Kenya to China, the U.S., France and Senegal will soon lead her to the lectern at Kalamazoo College’s Commencement and on to countries such as South Africa, Morocco, Greece and the Netherlands.
Okero, an international student from Nairobi, will address her fellow graduates on Sunday, June 15, as the speaker for the class of 2025 before she travels the world for 10 months as this year’s Sherbin Fellow.
The fellowship—consisting of a grant that gives a graduating senior at K an opportunity to explore a topic of personal interest outside the U.S.—was established by alumnus Robert Sherbin ’79 and named after his father. Sherbin participated in study abroad at K by traveling to the University of Nairobi, where he was one of just six undergrads from the U.S. and the only K student. Later, as a senior, he received a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, an external grant through the Watson Foundation, that allowed him to create and follow through with a one-year project overseas.
Okero—the third beneficiary of the fellowship following Elle Waldron ’23 and Sydney Salgado ’24—attended high school at the United World College Changshu in China before choosing Kalamazoo College.
“K was one of many schools I could have come to in the U.S., but I specifically liked that K would allow me to focus my education on my strengths while I still learned a breadth of knowledge from different disciplines thanks to its flexible liberal arts system,” Okero said. “For example, I knew the natural sciences were not my strength, and most other universities and colleges would’ve required that I study a core curriculum which would force me to study sciences like physics, biology or chemistry. Here at K, I followed my own plan. It was also important for me to find a small and close-knit environment where I could shine in my own way. K has worked out well, and I am beyond grateful to be this year’s Sherbin Fellow and the student Commencement speaker.”
Okero didn’t expect to provide a Commencement speech when she applied to be a graduation weekend speaker. Instead, she originally hoped to talk at Baccalaureate on Saturday, June 14, in front of a much smaller audience at Stetson Chapel. But after setting aside the introverted side of her personality and the initial surprise, she said she grew excited to address her classmates. Attendees can expect her to provide a nostalgic view into her four years at K and how they have shaped who she has become.
“There’s one line where I say ‘the 18-year-old I was then is not the 22-year-old I am now, but I have retained the same essence. I am bolder and louder in some ways and softer in others,'” Okero said. “Overall, I am definitely brighter, and I think that that stands true for all of us in the class of 2025.”
Okero studied abroad in Strasbourg, France, and she performed the research for her Senior Integrated Project (SIP) by traveling to Dakar, Senegal, and Nairobi, Kenya, where she learned about contemporary African art and explored how it reflects identity and shapes unity.
“Dakar is a city that I’ve come to enjoy visiting and Nairobi will always be home,” Okero said. “Despite the majority of my studies being in the social sciences, I have always been creative and wanted to expand my focus by merging my interests. That’s what my SIP allowed me to do.”
The experience, supported by grants through the Center for International Programs and K’s Office of the Provost, confirmed for Okero how much she enjoys traveling, and she said that it’s become an intrinsic part of her.
“I love getting to know a place by having conversations with people while I travel,” Okero said. “It’s incredible how much I learn just by being in a space that is out of my comfort zone. I first experienced that while studying at UWC Changshu China, where I learned more about myself and others in ways that I don’t think I could have by simply reading books or watching the news about the place. Coming to the U.S., I have experienced the same thing, and I thought, ‘Why not continue this?’ This opportunity with the Sherbin Fellowship is just that.”
Okero is the vice president and a former president of the Refugee Outreach Collective at K, a student organization that raises awareness regarding refugees and their struggles, while connecting volunteers with nonprofit organizations that offer displaced people the resources they need. She is also president of KalamaAfrica, a student organization that celebrates African and diaspora cultures at K. In that same spirit, she will travel to South Africa, Morocco, Greece, the Netherlands and possibly Malaysia thanks to the Sherbin Fellowship. All of them, she said, have populations of migrants and histories of a variety of ethnicities living together.
“I want to learn more about the history, reasoning and culture of each place,” she said. “I want to know how the migrants keep their culture, and how the host communities are reacting to an influx of new people in their space. Are they accommodating or are they more averse to it? As an international student, I have had to constantly consider how to hold onto my own culture, while allowing my new experiences to shape me. This has prompted my project for the fellowship, and because of it I can explore this same phenomenon both for migrants and host communities.”
Okero is in the process of solidifying the specifics of her itinerary and is hopeful for a reflective and adventure-filled experience. In the meantime, she would like to thank the alumnus who is making her experience possible.
“In having conversations with him, I could see how much we both understand the importance of traveling to new spaces and learning more about yourself and people in the process,” she said. “I also enjoyed hearing from him about his time at K. He studied abroad in my country, Kenya, and then told me that he lived in Hong Kong, so we realized that we both have lived in Kenya, the U.S. and regions of China. It was evident that we have a mutual understanding of how travel can affect one’s life in the best way possible. I’m so grateful that someone is championing that opportunity for others.”
