Students meet a heroine from home

On Thursday night, Ida Githu and Kagure Wamunyu nervously awaited the chance to shake hands with their country's famed Nobel laureate, Wangari Maathai.

In many ways, the pleasure was all hers.

For the two Meredith sophomores from Kenya, Maathai was as much rock star as revered speaker. They wanted pictures with the famed environmentalist, feminist and political activist to post on their Facebook pages to impress friends back home.

But for Maathai, the students were exciting in their own right. They represent something she's devoted her whole life to: a brighter future for the land they all love.

Githu and Wamunyu, presidential scholars at Meredith, are the first Kenyans to study in North Carolina through a program called Zawadi that cultivates African women as leaders.

Zawadi was started in 2002 by Susan Mboya, the daughter of Tom Mboya, whose "airlifts" from 1959 to 1963 brought more than 1,000 students on scholarship from Kenya to the U.S. Mboya's airlifts included the father of President Barack Obama.

They also included Maathai.

Maathai credits her education in the States -- at the tiny Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kan., then at the University of Pittsburgh -- with opening her mind and encouraging her to act boldly.

"Studying in America has a way of exposing you in an almost explosive way to the notion of true freedom," she said.

After returning to Kenya, Maathai, a biologist, became concerned about deforestation and the government's rank abuses of what she refers to as "the commons" -- shared natural resources such as rivers and parks. Maathai launched an environmental movement called the Green Belt that involved women in planting indigenous trees.

By the time Githu, 19, and Wamunyu, 20, were growing up, Maathai was a household name. But not always in the best way.

"She was viewed as a radical," said Githu.

Many Kenyans shrugged off Maathai's warnings, even after she and the Green Belt Movement were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.

"We never listened then, but we are listening now," said Wamunyu. "Now her work is the topic of conversation everywhere in Kenya."

Maathai's 2006 book "Unbowed" was Meredith's summer reading selection for 2009. Githu and Wamunyu were familiar with it when they were students at Alliance Girls High in Kikuyu, near Nairobi. The school accepted only the nation's highest-scoring girls.

But even among the best and brightest, Githu and Wamunyu shone. At Meredith, where 5 percent of students are international, they are leaders, too.

They say they are inspired by Maathai, the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in East Central Africa.

Githu and Wamunyu hope to earn doctorates as well. Currently, they are participating in joint degree programs at Meredith and N.C. State -- Githu in chemistry and chemical engineering, and Wamunyu in mathematics and civil engineering.

Githu wants to conduct medical research in AIDS. Wamunyu wants to help draw up plans for their developing nation.

They both are committed, like Maathai, to returning to Kenya and encouraging other young women to get educated and get involved. "Each one teach one," is the motto for Zawadi, Githu noted.

On Thursday afternoon, before her lecture, Maathai planted a magnolia tree on the Meredith grounds.

But for Githu and Wamunyu, she had already planted a seed in their hearts.

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