TARAWA, 25 MAY 2020 (RADIO KIRIBATI) — Kiribati’s medical research scientist has said he’s never dreamed of pursuing a research at Harvard University, one of the top and most prestigious Ivy League universities in the United States.
Bwarenaba Kautu, who’s currently based at Harvard Medical School, told Radio Kiribati News his dream has always been to try and get the type of education that he can use to serve his neighbours and humanity.
The 37 year old doctor and professor at Greenville University in Illinois said he owed much of his success to his late grandmother, Kaarite, and his aunt Tekarawarawa and her husband Bareta for supporting his childhood education.
Kautu said being the first I-Kiribati to study or work at America’s top university means nothing to him as all his blessings and achievements in life comes from God.
While at Alabama University, Kautu mentored and trained undergraduate students who went on to win the prestigious Goldwater scholarship, the Benjamin Cummings Biology prize, and were named to USA Today’s All-USA College Academic Team.
Kautu’s mentees were also interviewed and/or accepted into MD and PhD programmes at MIT, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Oxford, and Cambridge among many others.
Dr Kautu is the first and only I-Kiribati to have held formal academic affiliations with three of the top five universities in the world: Cambridge, Harvard, and Massachusetts Institutes of Technology….PACNEWS