Keren Mukenge

Being a whole man first motivated me. I always want to prove, you know what I mean? Like, you can do something. It's like, they're sending me, like, go and do it. That's me. One is my purpose. Secondly, it's the rejections that I have received of being a woman, of being a woman of color, and also of being an immigrant in the U.S. So, I can stand up one day on stage and tell people, like, if I do it, you can do it too. To push women to be like we can work on this, because women, like, women who were, like, in 19th, they did not have a chance and grace that we are receiving today.

One of the professors told me in school, like, it's better to live a significant life than just do, like, he was giving me this on work and stuff. It was, like, better somebody who lives a significant life than somebody who just worked for work. Somebody who told me, it was like, you are a Black woman. And also, you are an immigrant in the U.S... Know that every door you're gonna knock. You're gonna want to prove yourself... In every room, you enter, you have to make sure that you make a place for yourself, because nobody's gonna make it for you.

Do not limitate yourself. Because I grew up. Right now, this month is August, I'm gonna be [AGE]. And the more I grew up. I understand that as a woman, right now, every room is really, really open, harmed to women. Every time you're a woman, there's just gonna be somebody out there who's gonna tell you to do something in order to get something, or who's gonna tell you, like, you are a woman, you're not able, you can't do this. For me, I want to tell a woman, as long as you are passionate. As long as you put God in your way, is there in the way, and you know where you're going, you can achieve anything. You can be even the President of the U.S.

Opportunities is the connections, I feel like people don't really consider connections that you've got. But I'm really grateful for the connection that I have built during my path, because those connections producing the food. For example, my mentor, who I'm working now every day and every week. It's somebody who one of my mentors who I 19 referred me. Those are all opportunity, like, whatever you keep a good relationship with people. They're just gonna be open to do it for you. Challenges include a bunch of rejection from companies, like the city of San Diego, even though my application went through, but the position that I was writing, they don't interest, most of them rejected me. There is also a bunch of rejection from other companies, and I'm not giving up, I'm just pushing to a point where I know one door is gonna help and another.

The first value that is most important to me. More of giving back. And a good leader. Because people think leadership is only about leading. But they don't understand that, like, leadership is also about serving others. And those are beneficial in serving others. Because when you're serving others, you're inspiring others. And for me, I feel like that's something. But, I really consider, and that's one of my values is being able to inspire others, being able to be there for them, so they can go with stories, like the way I have stories of a bunch of people in my life who helped me once. So I'm saying, like, being there for others, I feel like it's a great value.