Orein Francis Jafter

The earliest schooling, in Zvishavane. My father died while I was at preschool — the first of two losses that reorganised the family and, with it, where I would be educated.

Rural primary schooling in Mberengwa. My mother died during these years. What followed was a childhood organised around the generosity of relatives and the schools nearest to wherever the family could place me.

A transfer, following relocation — the second of three primary schools.

The mine school, and the last stop before secondary education. Four primary schools in total, which teaches you early that continuity is something you carry rather than something you are given.

Boarding secondary education in Gweru — the first stable institutional setting, and where the sciences stopped being school subjects and started being interesting on their own terms.

06African Leadership AcademyJohannesburg, South AfricaEntrepreneurial Leadership Diploma, 2016–2017.

Two years in Johannesburg with a cohort drawn from across the continent. The leadership foundation and character building that the journey map marks as its first node — and the point at which an African career stopped meaning a national one.

A summer at Penn developing strategic thinking and entrepreneurial insight — the beginning of the technopreneur strand that later became the innovation work.

08Yonsei University — BScSeoul, South KoreaNanoscience & Engineering. Mastercard Foundation Scholar.

Arrived in Korea in 2018 on a full Mastercard Foundation scholarship. Undergraduate study in nanoscience and engineering, and the start of the laboratory work that produced the first publications.

09Yonsei University — MEngSeoul, South KoreaNanobiomedical Engineering.

Master's research in nanobiomedical engineering at the IBS Center for NanoMedicine: soft nanomaterials, operando electron microscopy, and the mechanochemistry reproducibility work published in Angewandte Chemie.