Chelimo Koitaba

20 years old, attending Imperial College London. Chelimo was awarded a Beacon Scholarship in May 2020.

Chelimo is studying towards an MEng in Biomedical Engineering. She adopted a targeted approach to improving her grades this year. She passed all her mastery exams and scored 73% in her Mechanics lab report. Persistence and extra time devoted to coding saw her grades increase during the year and she plans to improve further by taking a coding course over the summer.

During her 2nd year at Imperial, Chelimo regularly attended weekly orchestra practice and played violin in the Christmas and Easter concerts. She maintained a good level of fitness through home and gym workouts and achieved her goal of walking 8,000 steps three times a week, which she found helped to maintain her wellbeing, especially during exam periods.

In her capacity as Treasurer of the East African Society, Chelimo efficiently budgeted for and helped organise termly events. In addition, she was successful in seeking external sponsorship for the EASOC for next year. She also became an Outreach Ambassador for Bioengineering and after training, attended an activity in her second term.

Chelimo has been supporting students in Kenya both academically with their studies in Maths and with their applications to university. These sessions have taken place online and in person, when Chelimo returned home during the year.

Beacon Workshop Participation

Chelimo’s 2022 Summer Beacon Citizenship Project was about writing a Success Guide for students in Nairobi who struggle with Maths.

In Leadership Workshops, Chelimo made eloquent and quality contributions. She has been able to effectively apply what she learnt during the Team Building workshop while completing group work on her course, and in her role with the EASOC.