By Kate Marriott
The Samuel P. Huntington Public Service Award offers $30,000 to graduating college seniors from accredited U.S. institutions for use in undertaking a self-designed, year-long public service project anywhere in the world. Established in 1989 to honor Samuel Huntington—a former CEO of the New England Electric System and advocate for energy conservation—the award supports meaningful initiatives that promote the public good and have the potential for lasting impact.
This year, Diana Naiyanoi Kimojino ‘25 was named a Samuel P. Huntington Award recipient. Earlier this month, Kimojino shared with the Fellowships Office the personal significance of the award and how her time at Wesleyan has empowered her with the tools to achieve this accomplishment.
Kimojino is an Economics major and an African Studies minor at Wesleyan from Narok County, Kenya. She founded the Nailepu Foundation in 2022, which, while initially emphasizing facilitating girls’ access to opportunities in Narok County through education, mentorship, and economic empowerment, now recognizes the need to focus specifically on issues of reproductive health, menstrual shame, and mental health burdens that girls face in the community. The young women Kimojino spoke to identified these challenges as omnipresent, underlying the many other systemic realities they face.
Kimojino conveyed that her time at Wesleyan gave her the tools to conceive this ambitious project. Through her work at Wesleyan’s Patricelli Center for Social Entrepreneurship, Kimojino has attended conferences and interacted with global leaders tackling social issues. Kimojino also took Leadership and Social Innovation, a class offered through the Patricelli Center, which she cites as “one of the most valuable courses [she has] ever taken at Wesleyan,” as it gave her insights on “theoretical frameworks and practical tools for leading change in communities” directly from a Wesleyan alum accomplished in social entrepreneurship.
Outside of the Patricelli Center, Kimojino is enrolled in Reproductive Politics and the Family in Africa with Laura Ann Twagira, Associate Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Science and Technology Studies, and History. This course has impacted the direction of the Nailepu Community Health Initiative by strengthening Kimojino’s approach to the project. These experiences, as well as her time at Wesleyan in general, have taught Kimojino to take advantage of the opportunities and resources made available to her and have reinforced her courage, resilience, compassion, and confidence as a leader, advocate, and thinker.
Thus, Kimojino’s status as an experienced social entrepreneur is well-established. As a direct outgrowth of conversations with young women in Narok County, Kimojino and her team will use the Samuel P. Huntington Award to launch the Nailepu Community Health Initiative as a new project under the Nailepu Foundation. This program centers the reproductive and mental health of girls by creating safe spaces for them to work through and “take control of their health without shame.” Specifically, the Neilepu Community Health Initiative will provide access to reproductive health education and trained health advocates, emphasizing “health equity and economic empowerment.”
Kimojino described the intensely personal nature of this work. She witnessed firsthand the prevalence of early marriage, teenage pregnancy, and school dropouts among girls in Narok County; after high school, Kimojino shared: “I saw many of my closest friends – bright, ambitious young women – forced to abandon their dreams because of these systemic challenges. The pain of watching them lose their futures stayed with me, becoming the driving force behind everything I do.”
When asked about advice she would give to future applicants, Kimojino reflected on the importance of candor and introspection during the application process. “This kind of funding is rare and powerful,” she emphasized, and therefore requires that applicants ask themselves questions such as “Will the project still stand after the funding ends?” Future Samuel P. Huntington Award recipients should be prepared to demonstrate not only their passion for the social issue at hand but also that they are “prepared to build something sustainable” using that passion.
Students interested in applying for the Samuel Huntington Public Service Award should email the Office of Fellowships before the end of October of their senior year.