Patience Agasaro Uwase graduated from Bucknell University with a degree in Women and Gender Studies & French with a minor in Economics. Currently, Patience works as a Development Assistant at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Before joining MIT, she was a Market Researcher & Marketing Assistant for John Casablancas Model & Talent Agency. Patience was also a Fundraising and Research Fellow at Equanimity Foundation, which seeks to address human development needs worldwide.
At Bucknell, Patience joined the Tedx Logistics team, where she organized Bucknell’s Tedx conference. She studied abroad in Tours, France, and conducted research on immigrant women’s contributions to French art, literature and film, and the challenges they face as immigrants. Patience also interned for Bucknell’s Admissions department and the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Gender. She interned at the Rwandan Development Board and at WorldWideWomen, helping to initiate a more targeted marketing strategy.
Originally from Rwanda, Patience grew up in a family with five children and graduated from Nu Vision high school in 2015. Patience credits having grown up in a family that values the importance of education as influencing her passion for books and for education as a whole. Patience identifies herself as having been a strong feminist for as long as she can remember, always trying to show her community that girls have much more to give to society than what is conventionally expected.
Watch her leadership speech here.