Blog post from Innocent Rwamba Nyaga who is following the MS in market research at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Innocent is the recipient of the ESOMAR Foundation / MSRA Scholarship sponsored by WIRe and Unilever.
As I’d mentioned in an article I’d written earlier this year, I was in the process of getting a definite thesis title. I finally settled on ‘The influence of social media on consumer buying behavior among MBA students at the University of Nairobi’. I chose this topic because I felt I was interacting with social media so often and I did not want a boring, exhausting project to handle. I am at the final stages of binding the project and getting ready for the December graduation. I am so elated I could scream (I have actually, a number of times)!! It has been a journey that’s worth sharing with my grandkids, God granting. I have learnt so much, most of which is patience and tunnel focus determination. Most days it was difficult to decide which was more important self, work or this project but I’m glad I pulled through.
On matters work, this year has been a tough one. From May 2018 the National Museums of Kenya (my employer) partnered with Google to digitize Kenya’s natural and cultural heritage housed in the institution. We digitized over 10,000 objects, created 16 virtual tours of our regional museums around the country, created over 100 digital stories based on the diverse cultures and beliefs of the Kenyan people and created 4 expeditions (Google expeditions) allowing visitors to virtually sample the various galleries highlighted using the Google virtual reality (VR) cardboard. All these and more you can find on https://artsandculture.google.com/project/kenyan-cultures and prepare to be blown away. This is an opportunity for all those that haven’t had a chance to visit my beautiful country, have a look-see!
The cherry on top is the unending favor, love, wisdom and joy attained from the Heavenly father! Prayers were (and still are) paramount for me to handle all the responsibilities placed on my lap. Many times, had it not been for this Spiritual dependence, I wouldn’t be here to pen the heights I’ve scaled. Even the way I received this scholarship was through His phenomenal, unexplainable ways that no one can comprehend but, that’s a story for another day. I am the first in my family to attain a master’s degree and I couldn’t be happier. I would like to say, Jesus is real, He’s alive and He has been my number one support system. That’s my year’s trifactor in a nutshell! On repeat all year round! What I feel now is immense relief and need some R&R in readiness for 2020!
Ciao! Innocent Nyaga
