Registering my company and attending conferences: How my mentor has helped me shine

The mentorship I have received from Dr. Franklin Simtowe is beyond measure. He has been an outstanding mentor and his contribution to my life is evident. It is good to note that Dr. Franklin and I have had all our monthly meetings face to face, with regular communication via email, text messages, WhatsApp and direct calls.

During our first meeting, we went through the mentoring handbook together, we reviewed my purpose road map and I came up with both my short term and long term goals. I must say that up to now we have together achieved all our set goals in the last 6 months. Some of the notable achievements include registration of my company- Kings Agricultural services Ltd, attendance and participation in various conferences such as the food processing and packaging exposyum held in Nairobi , the leadership and entrepreneurial conference held in September, the African Emerging Leaders conference organized by the World Youth Alliance, JKUAT agribusiness symposium amongst others. The fore have added great value to my networks and helped me improve my interpersonal skills and competencies.

In our subsequent meetings we always handle each of my set short term monthly goals, review challenges if any, discuss our achievements and outline the next way forward. Generally we monitor and evaluate the steps we make in this mentoring journey thanks to Dr. Franklin’s monitoring and evaluation expertise.

Now that I am through with my undergraduate studies, I know that 2016, will be a great year. I hope that we shall be able to achieve the remaining targets and work closely to ensure my company is operational and that I secure a scholarship to further my studies and continue improving my interpersonal and technical skills as outlined in my development journal.

Ladies and gentlemen, all these are requisites for me to achieve my purpose road map that I declared during the mentoring orientation workshop. “I am building capacity for youth in Kenya to invest in agricultural enterprises for improved livelihoods through mentorship and training in agribusiness”. It is here my company shall play a pivotal role.

I thank God for the opportunity to be selected as a YPARD mentee. I was challenged during the mentoring orientation workshop held in June 2015, and I have continually improved my interpersonal skills. I thank my mentor, Dr. Franklin, fellow mentees and the entire YPARD fraternity for the far we have come.