Bloggers Association of Maseno University (B.A.M.U)

The Bloggers Association of Maseno University Sets a New Record by Elizabeth Muthama

The saying that change begins with you is not cliché as on 15^th June 2014 the Bloggers Association of Maseno University initiated it by organizing an interfaculty conversation forum. Students from different faculties were invited to Ongea Hub’s forum where they discussed issues in their fields of study including: the scope of their course, the prospects of the job market and the influence of the internet and technology on their study and jobs.

The forum brought together students from the Political Science, Media, Special Education, Medicine and Surgery departments. Medicine and Surgery probably stood out not only as the only department where students take the largest number of units per academic year but also as the field whose jobs prospects are most likely the brightest: as Arthur Chweya put it “trained doctors will never tarmac there are ready jobs waiting for them”. Jack Adienge who was representing the Political Science department found himself in a catch 22 situation when pundits present in the session disagreed with him regarding the job definition of Political Science graduates. It was clear that Political Science graduates have to convince the job market that they have a vital role to play in the policy making and consultancy worlds.

The media students also had a rough time convincing people present that their job market is not infringed by individuals who are not trained journalists. The Ongea Hub forum presented the attendees with a special opportunity not only to understand what goes on in other classes but also learn interesting facts, this experience was best brought by Vane Nyambati who revealed incredible facts about special needs education and sealed it with a touching personal story.

The future for special education trained teachers according to Vane Nyambati is just as bright as that of the doctors, but unlike the many people doctors will have to attend to, these teachers can only have a maximum of 6, 6 and 10 students of the body impaired, brail and sign language in a class respectively. Vane Nyambati was inspired to study special education by her sister who due to ailment lost her hearing and gradually speaking abilities, but not her spectacular talents in athletics and singing.

After the conversation that lasted at least 3 hours every individual in attendance confessed to getting a new perspective on jobs market and content of study in other disciplines, Ongea hub is a brain-child of the Bloggers Association of Maseno University and it aims to bring together thinkers to discuss academic, social, political and economic issues: this was the third Ongea session and many more are in the pipeline.

This article was compiled by Elizabeth Muthama. She is a member of BAMU and is a third year Development Studies student.