James Mokaya Omweri Put Family And Faith First; Now He’s a UAB Ph.D. Grad

By Micah Hardge | UAB News For James Mokaya Omweri, attending the University of Alabama at Birmingham has been a steppingstone in the future he is building for his family. Born in Kenya, Omweri is a Ph.D. student set to graduate today with a doctoral degree in chemistry from the College of Arts and Sciences. Family First The second oldest sibling in a family of five, the now 37-year-old Omweri navigated his childhood and teenage years as a provider for his family. “Me and my sister would do manual jobs within our village town to earn money and food for our family,” Omweri said. “I knew that this wasn’t the ceiling for me, though. Something in me told me ‘James, you can do it, keep going.’” When Omweri went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in science education in Kenya through a government sponsorship, he was the first in his family to receive postsecondary education. “I trained as a high school teacher and got employed by the Kenyan government to teach high school physics and chemistry, and I taught for seven years,” Omweri said. After meeting his wife and having two kids, Omweri desired to continue his education for the...