Lorem Aminathia ’11, center, with teachers and students at Kinyeti Academy.
By Erin Reid P’01,’05
Lorem Aminathia ’11 overcame, by any measure, insurmountable odds. His journey began in a South Sudan village in East Africa. Hailing from a family of cattle herders in a region prone to civil wars with no functioning schools and little health care, he contracted tuberculosis at age 5. His parents had no alternatives, so they dropped him off at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Northern Kenya, where he could receive treatment. With no adult supervision, older boys raised him and made him attend school. Now, he is the founder of Kinyeti Academy, a school that is educating the next generation of South Sudanese leaders.
Aminathia’s performance on the high school entrance exam highlighted his intellect. “Despite being a South Sudanese refugee, I scored highest in the entire Kenyan school region where my refugee camp was located,” he explained. “As a result, the government of Kenya awarded me a full scholarship to attend Alliance High School in Nairobi, the most prestigious secondary school in the country. That was my first big break, and it was how I managed to get myself out of the camp.” He then attended the African Leadership Academy, Hotchkiss, and Yale.
“My time at the African Leadership Academy was challenging, and I expected that coming to the U.S. was going to be an even greater test,” he said. He met Malcolm McKenzie P’10, Hotchkiss’s head of school at the time. “He assured me that I could make it work,” says Aminathia. “He also helped to see that I could contribute to the education of others through a postgraduate year at Hotchkiss, something that I certainly wanted to do.”
John Thornton ’72, then president of the Hotchkiss Board of Trustees, helped create a partnership with Yale that ultimately brought Aminathia to Hotchkiss. He introduced McKenzie to Jeff Brenzel, then dean of admissions at Yale. Together, they established a program through which Brenzel identified one Yale applicant each year who would benefit from a transition year at Hotchkiss to take full advantage of Yale. “Malcolm agreed to take the student as a PG, and the student arrived with a guaranteed acceptance to Yale the following year,” Thornton said. “Lorem was one of those students.”
Aminathia reminisces about his time in Lakeville. “When I first arrived at Hotchkiss, I thought we were passing through some sort of beautiful park or private club. Then I realized this was the school. I was astonished. Even after spending four years at Yale and visiting other such places, I still think there are very few campuses as scenic or schools so blessed with opportunities as Hotchkiss.”
Aminathia credits two teachers for accelerating his intellectual growth. “Chris Burchfield P’08,’10,’18 lifted my writing to a new level. In philosophy and world religions, Lou Pressman P’98 challenged me to think in ways I had never thought before. These courses built the foundational skills I needed for college. I enjoyed playing soccer, but my favorite activity was simply biking around the campus. I never got over how beautiful it was or how lucky I was to be there.”
Dean Brenzel served as his advisor at Yale, helping him to navigate the complexities of the Ivy League. “He became more than an advisor,” says Aminathia. “He became my adopted father. When I matriculated at Yale, I told him that my plan was to return to South Sudan and launch a school. He promised to help me when I felt ready. Five years ago, I reached out to tell him it was time. True to his word, he came on board, and since then, he has been helping me with strategy, fundraising, teacher recruitment, communications, and many other challenges. He is now my principal adviser.”
Aminathia earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale, which earned him a scholarship to study at Tsinghua University’s Schwarzman College in Beijing. The Schwarzman Scholars Program provides an opportunity to learn about China while living and studying in Beijing. “I think understanding China is critical for anyone striving to be a leader in any country. I recently went back to Beijing for a reunion celebrating the first 10 years of that program. The former Schwarzman Scholars are doing incredible work all over the world,” he said.
“Education transformed my life,” he emphasized. “I could never have imagined ending up at places like Hotchkiss or Yale, which was only possible because I found my way to educational opportunities. In my home country, only 27 percent of eligible children are enrolled in any school, and the schools that do exist have few qualified teachers. The education gap is enormous—more than 2.8 million South Sudanese children face the future with little hope of getting a basic education. Inadequate school facilities, perennial conflicts, poverty, and natural disasters drive down attendance, while teacher quality is also very low. Most teachers are not proficient in English, the language of instruction.”
Aminathia founded Kinyeti Academy out of his passion for education. He returned to Hotchkiss in October 2022 to share his story and his plans for the new school with a crowd of students in Walker Auditorium. At that time, Kinyeti Academy was in the planning stages. Now it’s a reality.
“I have faced many challenges, but after almost three years of creating instructional programs, finding and training quality teachers remains my biggest obstacle,” he said. “Our program needs to be a mix of remediation, expectation changing, and acceleration for students with high motivation and persistence. This program would be tough to deliver anywhere, and it is especially challenging in such a severely disadvantaged environment. I am focused at all times on learning how to recruit, build, and sustain a capable and experienced faculty.”
In its second year, Kinyeti Academy has 57 students and five teachers. “Our goal is to identify and nurture high-potential students in South Sudan, and prepare them, through a rigorous, character-forming education, to matriculate and excel in the world’s best high schools and colleges. We intend to equip our students with the knowledge and skills for careers of impact—careers devoted to building a more peaceful and prosperous South Sudan.”
Aminathia plans to grow Kinyeti into a full K-12 school, and eventually a boarding school and a training ground for teachers. “We are planning to add one grade every year as we grow. Our students come mostly from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds, and their families cannot contribute financially. Kinyeti is reliant on the generosity of individual donors. I am particularly grateful to John Thornton, who has become a critical supporter.”
Aminathia credits his optimism and resilience for his success. “I have always believed things will get better, and decided early on to take advantage of every learning opportunity I could.”