The 2017 Last Lecture was held on 17^th February in a packed Strathmore Business School auditorium. The Last Lecture is a way to celebrate our lecturers and the inspirational teaching at Strathmore that every student goes through. After attending over 2500 lecture hours over the last four years, the Last Lecture caps it all. It’s a symbolic end to undergraduate university lectures. However, unlike the usual lectures, the students get to vote for who is to give them this Last Lecture.

Mrs. Rosemary Mutuku won the vote of the fourth years to give the 2017 Last Lecture. This was the second time she was being voted by the final year students to give the Last Lecture, the first time being in 2013.

Mrs. Mutuku is a lawyer and a lecturer.  She is a holder of two Degrees in Law, a Bachelors and a Masters, both from the University of Manchester. She also holds a Diploma from the Kenya School of Law. Rosemary has worked for two law firms namely; Mutula Kilonzo Company and Advocates, and AF and Gross Company and Advocates.

The cheerful lecturer shared her experiences in her career encouraging the students to follow their passions. She strongly emphasized on; maturity, honesty, resilience, hope, hard work and passion as the main pillars of a successful career or business.

She classified graduates under two categories, advising the students to choose the category that goes in line with their personality; entrepreneurs and corporates. “There are two types of graduates; the entrepreneurs who are the risk takers and love working alone by launching their own companies like this one here, albeit in a local context. Corporates fall in the second category, these do not like taking risks and are team players. Depending on your personality chose the category that suits you well,” said Mrs. Mutuku

She put a great emphasis on personality, advising the students to learn about their personality and those around them. These will help them work better with others. Besides these she taught the students on how to prioritize their time, which is a great asset.

Listed below are key points discussed during the lecture on how to behave in the corporate world.

• Let your talents be known without bragging.
• Ask for challenging work.
• Learn different personalities/ temperaments.
• Do not throw tantrums, it is a grown up world.
• Do not insult people.
• Have cooling off periods, it is essential in revitalizing your energy.
• Do not get involved in office politics, that is gossip.

We wish all the best to our fourth year students in their future endeavours.