Oloo's ePortfolio: The Beginings

Birth

In the second week of January in the year 1984, a child was born to Mr. Vitalis Oloo Ndir and Mrs. Veronica Nyakesa Oloo in a rural village in Siaya district (now Siaya county), western Kenya. Having been born in the morning, the boy child was named Omondi, loosely translated as "early riser" in the local Luo dialect. When I was 9, I was baptised at St. Michael's Sigomre Catholic Church and named Francis and thus henceforth my full name became FRANCIS OMONDI OLOO

Education

Having been born in the same year that the Government of Kenya introduced the 8-4-4 education system, I spent 8 years at Madungu Primary School where I sat the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in the year 1997 after which I was admitted to Sawagongo High School in Siaya District.

I Joined Sawagongo High School on 25th February, 1998 and was in the school for the next four years. During my time in the school, I actively participated in drama and especially in the dramatized dance category where for a bigger part, I was the lead drummer for the dance troupe. I Sat the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) in November, 2001 and scored 81 out of the possible 84 points.

Since I had performed better in Mathematics and Sciences, I had hoped to pursue a career in Electrical and Electronic Engineering however by a stroke of fate, I chose to pursue a career in Surveying and thus was admitted at the Department of Surveying at the University of Nairobi where I graduated with First Class honors in Bachelor of Science (Surveying) in October, 2008

From 01.03.2012 I was enrolled at the University of Salzburg, Austria to study for a Masters of Science degree course in Applied Geoinformatics. My studies in Austria were funded by the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD). I intend to be done with my studies at the end of July, 2013.

On 01.07.2013 I received a Masters of Science degree in Applied Geoinformatics from the University of Salzburg. I passed with a distinction (Mit Auszeichnung Bestanden)

Work

From January, 2009. I was employed as a GIS Technician at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) my key role in this post involved GIS data capture and mapping.

In July 2010, I signed a new contract as a GIS Analyst and with this I was attached to two regional projects where my main roles were GIS training and mapping land health and land degradation in Ethiopia highlands and in the Lake Tanganyika Basin. I successfully executed my tasks and only resigned from the post in March, 2012 to pursue further studies. In the course of my work, I learnt quite a lot from my supervisors, Dr. Thomas Gumbricht and Mr. Meshack Nyabenge. Additionally, I developed great interest in the field of Geoinformatics and especially in system development, web-applications and applications of GIS and Remote Sensing technology in solving natural resource oriented problems. As part of my work, I was involved in training rural stakeholders on how to use basic GIS skills in making decisions on natural resource management.