Biography
Wanjiku "Wawa" N. Gatheru was born and raised in the Northeast corner of Connecticut. She is a current senior at the University of Connecticut, majoring in Environmental Studies with minors in Global Studies and Urban and Community Studies. In 2019, she was named a Truman Scholar and Udall Scholar. She is a first generation American of Kenyan descent and the first Rhodes Scholar ever elected from UConn. As the vice president of UConn's undergraduate student body, she led the successful implementation of an environmental literacy general education requirement and co-led the state's first assessment of food insecurity at a public institution of higher education. At Oxford, Wawa will continue her studies at the intersections of race, environment and policy.