Awuor Onguru

Attending Yale University, USA, majoring in English and History. Awuor was awarded a Beacon Scholarship in June 2015, and was a Beacon Scholar at the International School of Kenya for 4 years.

During her time as a Beacon Scholar at school she remained within the top 5% of her class, was appointed leader of the Simba Chapter of the National Honours Society and served as the grade representative from 2015-2016 and again from 2018-2019. Awuor graduated from school at the top of her class and received the Huduma Award for dedication to service.

Aside from her academic life, Awuor also volunteered at the Ghetto Classics Orchestra, where she mentored students in music theory and life skills. Together with her school's Inspiration Initiative, Awuor was able to raise $5000 towards supporting the Orchestra, through organising a benefit concert sponsored by the Java House. When she is not volunteering, Awuor writes poetry and fiction. Her work has appeared in literary magazines Menacing Hedge and Polyphony Lit and the langaa publication Covid Stories from East Africa.

Awuor is now in her third year at Yale University, majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and a certificate in French. She was a staff columnist at the Yale Daily News for one year, and was then elected to the position of Editor and edited Opinion in the 2021-2022 school year. Following her tenure as Opinion Editor, she was awarded the prestigious Yale Daily News Gordon Summer Fellowship Award to write an investigative journalism piece on Arson in Kenyan High Schools. 

She is now the Tour Manager of the Yale Glee Club, and the Secretary of the Elizabethan Club— a society at Yale devoted to advancing arts and literature for students, faculty, and alumni.  In the spring of 2023, she will be producing and directing Dave Malloy's acclaimed acapella musical Octet.