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National Peace Corps Association > News > Service > Encore Congratulates First Moi Scholarship Recipient
Encore Congratulates First Moi Scholarship Recipient
By Erin Madsen on Monday, November 29th, 2010
Geoffrey with his wife Tabitha and son Milan
Congratulations to Geoffrey M. Maina, the first recipient of the Moi University Nursing PhD Scholarship of $5000. The Moi University Nursing PhD Scholarship Fund was established by Gene Marsh, RN, PhD, an Encore Volunteer in 2010, assigned to a project sponsored by Johnson and Johnson in partnership with Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya to build capacity and strengthen Nursing in Africa. Individual contributions plus funding from a Shearwater Foundation grant will enable Encore to award a total of three scholarships throughout next year.
Geoffrey is a Kenyan nurse educator working for Moi University. He is 31 years old and pursuing his PhD in Nursing at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Geoffrey graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) from Moi University in 2002. Following graduation, he worked with Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital as a staff nurse. In 2003 he was employed by Moi University as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Nursing Sciences. He received his Masters in Nursing from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in 2008. Since then, he has been teaching Community Health Nursing.
Geoffrey’s research interests focus on women’s health, particularly intimate partner violence, and HIV among vulnerable populations. He has presented his research findings at several international conferences and has published a few articles in peer reviewed journals. More recently he has been conducting a study on HIV among vulnerable populations such as taxi drivers in Kenya.
Geoffrey says, “I am married to Tabitha and have one son, Milan who is four years old. Both of them are in Kenya. I hope they will join me in the course of next year. Thank you for the award of the Moi University Nursing PhD Scholarship. It is an honor to be the first recipient of this award.”
Geoffrey currently is in his first semester of Nursing doctoral study at the University of Alberta. The program is four years long, and he will be undertaking a project on the mentoring of nurses on HIV for his doctoral dissertation. Geoffrey states that “My aim is to be equipped as a nurse educator so that after graduation, I will be a better mentor to the masters’ students in Nursing in my home country. In addition, I hope to be mentored by colleagues in North America and develop networks which can yield collaborative projects to benefit nurses in Kenya.”
For more information about Encore Service Corps International, visit www.EncoreServiceCorps.org.
