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Finding an opportunity to study abroad has been touted as one of the fastest ways to access high-quality education and lucrative career prospects.
What is often left unsaid is the practical aspects of everyday living as a Kenyan student studying in a foreign country. It is not quite as easy especially when one doesn't have a steady stream of funding say from a scholarship or family support.
According to Charles Thuo, the costs for a Kenyan student abroad is about three times what it would cost a resident student on the same campus.
The best way to go is as a student but ideally, you should go on a scholarship or if you have parents who can afford it. I had neither so I had to hustle. As I went through college, I had three jobs and part of the reason why is because as an international student you pay up to three times what a resident would pay so it's super expensive.
It is why most non-scholarship or partially sponsored students opt to get more than one job to help pay for school tuition and meet some of their living costs.
A chance to enlist for the United States Army came knocking for Thuo and he embraced it to help get himself through school and it worked out. At the height of his time in the service, he was an aerospace engineer with Cessna and later Boeing while serving as a combat engineer for the Army.
READ: From U.S. Army to app developer: Charles Thuo and his unique solution for importers
You have a really good plan until you get punched in the face
Finding structure through army training and deployment is one of the elements Thuo appreciates most from his time in service.
The Army is really good for structure, especially for young adults who are still trying to figure out what they'd like to do or trying to find their identity.
It goes a long way. Soldiers are used to hardship and operating in less than ideal environments. There's this line by Mike Tyson, 'You have a really good plan until you get punched in the face' and in the army you're taught to be adaptable, to make quick decisions when things don't go according to plan.
As an army veteran, he credits his smooth transition to planning ahead. Though his time as a soldier was cut short by an injury, he had learned enough from his trucking side hustle to venture into the world of logistics.
For most Kenyans in diaspora, you've got to help your people back at home with paying tuition, medical fees and such. Usually, one job will not be enough for this so I was trying to find a side hustle and I got this crazy idea that I could go learn how to drive a truck and be driving trucks over the weekend.
After experiencing some road bumps in getting part time jobs as a truck driver, he eventually resolved to register a trucking company as he continued with his fulltime engineering job.
I bought a truck and hired a driver in Oklahoma because I still had my day job and what you learn about logistics is that you don't make much money doing local rounds, where the money is made is in transit trips like Nairobi to Kigali or Mombasa to Kampala.
He would soon realise that in two weeks he was paying his driver more than he was receiving as a fulltime engineer. Thuo didn't need much more to convince him to make the transition from engineer to truck driver and eventually, founder of Apexloads third-party logistics company.
From a student trying to make ends meet, to11 years of service in the U.S. military and now an African tech founder, Thuo's journey in entrepreneurship is a lesson in adaptability.