Recently, seventeen-year-old Martina Gasana was recognised with an Outstanding Pearson Learner Award after scoring the highest mark the Int. GCSE science (double) award from the 2015 summer exams. But contrary to many people’s expectations, she is currently studying English literature, History, Philosophy and French with prospects of falling into her mother’s footsteps with a law degree. But who is she and what does she stand for?

Despite studying in Kenya, Gasana was born in Kigali, Rwanda to Bart Gasana and Hope Murera. It was at the age of three that she moved with her parents and her elder brother, Mucyo Gasana, to settle in Kenya.

In Kenya, Martina attended a preparatory school called Peponi house at the age of 13 before she joined Peponi Secondary School where she is currently studying.

At Peponi Secondary School, she received training in various aspects of life in addition to academics.

"In both schools, I explored great opportunities to exercise my abilities, not only in the field of academics but in sports and music,” says Martina.

While at school, she never took anything for granted and always put a lot of effort to learn other skills.

Fortunately, Martina exhibited outstanding performance, especially in sports and eventually received a scholarship. She is currently supported under this sports scholarship.

Although most people would consider Martina’s achievements astronomical, she too had a few hitches with sciences and previously struggled with the subjects. This is what forced her to invest a lot of hard work to overcome the challenges.

Women can do it

With most girls feeling alienated to science subjects, her advice is that hard work is enough to overcome all the difficulties associated with academics.

"I studied hard for my IGCSE examinations in efforts to get good grades that would make people around me happy, but achieving this award has been an incredible surprise and has motivated me even further. I can’t say I have faced a lot of challenges in my education but the greatest surprise was that while struggled the most with the science subjects, it was simply with hard work and motivation that I was able to overcome this difficulty,” she says.

Although she received support from her family, Martina observes that the other obstacle women face is fear to compete with men.

"In my opinion, there is absolutely no difference between the academic limits of men and women. We are all of the same creation and all of the same capability”

She, therefore, insists that women should never feel intimidated or discouraged of competing with men as well as aspiring to achieve higher.

Under ordinary circumstances, students who pass their GCSEs in double award science can progress to A’level in all of the three natural science subjects, but Martina chose to pursue arts to fulfill her dreams.