Joy Njau: Overcoming Unsurmountable Bias
New in the 2022 Summit Scholarship lineup was one scholarship dedicated specifically for a woman from (or currently residing in) Africa, made possible by funding from South African high altitude mountaineering pioneer Jeanette McGill. The McGill’s Mountains scholarship was awarded to Joy Njau, an impassioned 42-year-old Kenyan woman whose dream it is to one day climb the Seven Summits.
When we asked Joy about her thoughts about the Summit Scholarship and what it means to her, she wrote a wonderful letter that would be a shame not to share in full. Without further ado, meet Joy!
“Hello, I’m JOY, an outdoor enthusiast from Kenya and super passionate about mountaineering and Yoga! My love for the outdoors and hiking was born about 6 years ago purely by chance during the Christmas of December of 2015. Alone with just one porter for support, ill prepared with no proper gear or training and by my estimation overweight at almost 90kgs (198lbs), I foolishly attempted to climb 16,354ft Mount Kenya, Lenana Peak, just to escape the drudgery of spending another Christmas at home cooking and cleaning for my family!
Man did I suffer! That was my first critical lesson at mountaineering and the beginning of an exciting journey to finding Joy. I looked up prep hikes available in my area and signed up for every one of them. Every weekend I was on some trail, I cancelled all my social engagements, lost a significant amount of weight while at it, acclimatized and conditioned my body, primed to take on the next high-altitude mountain. By September 2016, I was on top of Mount Kilimanjaro (19,341ft), the rooftop of Africa!
The rest as they say is history and I never want to stop!
Along came the Summit Scholarship program in January of 2022. I knew without hesitation this was the most natural progression for my life’s purpose. Why you may ask? Because in the few years I have been fortunate to explore the mountain ranges of East Africa and the Himalayas, these instances have proven to be simply what I would call ‘breaking the barriers” experiences. Most women in my society don’t ever get the chance to do this. My mountain explorations have been moments of inspiration, encouragement, and inspiration in my community, reinforcing the message that women are strong, capable, and equipped to scale the highest mountains – both of the mind and of the universe, to overcome unsurmountable bias and WIN!
The Summit Scholarship with its wider reach simply offers a lifetime opportunity and an AWEsome platform, to learn, to create, to experience and to inspire everyone – my daughter, my family, my community, my country, my continent, and the whole wide world! I hope and pray that in our own small or big way, AWExpeditions and I will jointly be able to do this and more – a rising tide indeed lifts all boats!
I dare say receiving the confirmation on winning a summit scholarship to Ishinca & Tocllaraju in Peru was beyond exciting. I was in my hotel room in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, getting ready for a working weekend and mopping around missing my mountain expeditions back home. I scanned through the email real quick and just started screaming my head off.
Suddenly I needed to use the bathroom, urgently! I called my sister back in Kenya while seated on the loo (hahaha) and just hearing her shocked/awed congratulations, triggered tears of relief, joy, and gratitude streaming down my eyes, it was profound, still is…humbled much.
Am I ready? Of course, I was born ready! I am excited to begin this journey, this is a great adventure! Beyond that, I feel supported, encouraged, and Fired up to take on this experience and give it my all!”
Find out more about Joy and follow her journey on Instagram at @joyfully_yogi or on Facebook here.
