Gladys Ngetich, 28, is a young Kenyan who has caught the world's attention, due to her exceptional performance in the science field.
Ng'etich defied all odds, braving the male-dominated field of science.
The 28-year-old has been pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Oxford in the UK, since 2015, and is set to complete her education in 2019.
The engineer began the journey to her career at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), where she studied Mechanical Engineering.
According to Ng'etich, she was one of nine girls in a class of about 80 students, with most men concluding that the ladies would not make it through the course.
According to reports by Business Daily, Gladys got used to fighting stereotypes and being more of a trailblazer.
Recently, Ng'etich won the 2019 Schmidt Science Fellowship to investigate space science technologies that support sustainable development.
In July 2018, she appeared in UK’s Top 10 Rare Rising Stars, a system that annually recognises and celebrates extraordinary black students in the UK.
Gladys was born and in a family of nine, in a tiny village of Amalo, in Kenya's Rift Valley.
She studied at Lelaibei Primary School, which had very limited resources and many teachers couldn’t converse in English.
As a result, she graduated with paltry marks, which made it almost impossible to get admitted to a good secondary school.
She was later awarded a scholarship to pursue undergraduate studies at JKUAT, where she graduated with first-class honours, earning her another scholarship to the University of Oxford.
Gladys co-founded an organisation called ILUU, headquartered in Nairobi, which mentors, inspires and empowers girls from the rural parts of Kenya.
Glady's research aims to develop advanced cooling schemes for jet engines and also works in close collaboration with Rolls Royce.
"What keeps me going is the fact that someone has to scribe a new path, someone has to start walking to pave the way for someone else," she affirmed.
"I'm hoping there will be a trail of women coming after me and hoping they won't have to prove themselves so much," she concluded.
