My host’s living room. It is three days after my first white Christmas. The snow just won’t melt because of the below freezing conditions we have been experiencing for a few days after the snow fell. The sun trickles in through the windows which makes me smile. It is so sunny yet so cold. I …

My first semester at Penn has been enriched with wonderful experiences that I have been blessed to enjoy. I am grateful for having gone through this first semester and made it out alive! There are tonnes of things that I have learned but the lesson that comes close to my heart is:  Surround yourself with people …

It’s not even real. 2017 cannot be coming to an end. Despite the gap seven months I had between high school and university, the entire year was still a whirlwind of activity. For the first half of the year, I could have easily kept myself in the world’s waiting room, standing in line for the …

USAP alumnus Terrens Muradzikwa was honored today (25 November 2017) to be awarded the sole Rhodes Scholarship in Zimbabwe this year to study at Oxford University starting in 2018.  Terrens, currently a final year Economics student at Harvard College in Massachusetts, hails from Mutare.  He attended Marist Nyanga High School when he was recruited into …

Calling all budding Student-Athletes in Lower or Upper 6! The EdMatters team has launched another intake for a student-athlete cohort to begin next year. If you or someone you know is a high achieving athlete and a solid academic student please apply on the following link for a chance to be selected for the 2018 …

It’s November and that means Zimbabwe Career Connect Application season has begun! If you are a student studying in the U.S, Canada, Ashesi and ALU consider applying for the Zimbabwe Career Connect 2018 cohort for a two month intensive professional experience in Zimbabwe coupled with peer networking and professional mentoring. The ZCC program matches students …

Imagine this scenario. I am a thick-boned, black girl standing in a break dancing formation amongst Asian boys. All eyes are on us in anticipation of a frenzy of back flips and life defying stunts. However, I have never danced in my life except for that one time at my aunt’s wedding in 2012. I …

Having travelled out of my home country for the first time, I hardly believed my experience out there. Through the windows of the King Lion bus on the way to Harare, I could see fresh large water bodies, grasslands, mines and also small monkeys. While in Zimbabwe, I had the best time with my USAP …

When someone tells you that you need to appreciate the simple things in life because there is a chance you could lose it all, you might probably think the following: “Lamest cliché ever…” “That will never happen to me…” “Seriously?  Do I look that gullible to you?” “Someone grab a pizza to spread all this …

Had I been told that I would be enriching my mind in one of Philadelphia’s quiet suburbs, I would have deemed that prophecy a faux pax. Had I been told that I would lead a life of Independence 10,000 miles away from home, I would have scoffed at the thought. Nonetheless, the desire to learn …

7.30am! I place my phone back onto the table, a bit frustrated by the fact that I am up 45 minutes too early. I also know it won’t help trying to force myself back to sleep because my mind’s whispering all the mandatory tasks on my planner. I try forcing myself to sleep anyway. As …

Let me start with the bad news: There I was freshly baked from the high school oven, tired, uneasy, stressed yet optimistic that the future had something special in store for me. Final high school exams had dealt with me thoroughly and I knew exactly what my harvest would look like. My concentration and attention …