ATLANTA – Undergraduate Kudzanai Maveneke and alumna Nuru Mugambi of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business are among the winners of Georgia State University’s 2021 International Education Awards.
The awards are part of the university’s International Education Week (IEW) activities. IEW is a joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and U.S. Department of Education, held Nov. 8-12 to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange.
Kudzanai Maveneke, an actuarial science (AS) major from Zimbabwe, is International Undergraduate Student of the Year. The award honors and recognizes outstanding academic achievements, leadership, and contributions to international understanding.
Maveneke, a candidate for graduation in spring 2022, received the 2020 Eli A. Zubay Actuarial Science Award for highest undergraduate grade point average (GPA) among AS students, and has made the university’s President’s List (4.0 GPA) for five consecutive semesters.
Among other activities, Maveneke is diversity and inclusion officer for the Georgia State chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma, a fraternity for students in insurance, risk management and actuarial science. He also has served as an orientation leader for Georgia State’s office of International Student & Scholar Services and is co-leader of the university’s Actuarial Ambassador program.
An intern with AIG, Maveneke plans to use his skills and experience to improve the world’s financial and risk management sector.
Kenyan banking executive Nuru Mugambi (MBA ’08) has won the Sheth International Alumni Award for Exceptional Achievement. The award was established with a gift from Dr. Jagdish and Madhu Sheth through the Sheth Family Foundation. It recognizes an international graduate of Georgia State with an exemplary and longstanding professional reputation of achievement worldwide.
Since joining the Kenya Bankers Association in 2012 as its first woman director, Mugambi developed the country’s sustainable finance principles and a capacity-building program that has trained more than 33,000 bankers. A champion of enterprise development, she designed the industry’s Inuka SME Capacity Building Program, which has helped more than 40,000 entrepreneurs learn to run their businesses better.
Mugambi also developed the banking industry’s first digital accessibility framework for people with disabilities, to help more than two million disabled Kenyans gain better access to mobile banking products.
In 2015, Mugambi became the youngest woman to be designated a Fellow of the Kenya Institute of Bankers, and in 2016 she was recognized by the Eisenhower Fellowships program and U.S. President Barack Obama as an emerging African leader.
“We could ask for no finer role models for our students and alumni than Kudzanai Maveneke and Nuru Mugambi,” said Richard Phillips, dean of the Robinson College. “I extend my warmest congratulations to them, and to all the winners of Georgia State’s 2021 International Education Awards.”
International Education Week is observed by colleges and universities in more than 100 countries. Georgia State will recognize International Education Awards winners in 10 categories, spanning students, alumni, faculty and staff, at a virtual reception.