Célestin Nkeramihigo, PMP
Future 50 Honoree of 2024
For championing project management as a tool to unlock potential in East Africa
Dean of Faculty at Kepler College ǀ Kigali, Rwanda
New father Célestin Nkeramihigo has a four-month-old baby at home who he pines for during his long workdays as the dean of faculty at Kepler College in Rwanda. But, as an educator since the age of 21, Célestin also feels a strong responsibility for his students at Kepler, an innovative institution focused on educating talented, economically vulnerable students, and students who are refugees or disabled. Plus, he simply loves his work. “It’s not boring,” he says, flashing an amused smile. “I'm a person who gets bored easily.”
Célestin’s focuses on providing competency-based programs and manages a team of around 100 staff members working toward this goal. His efforts contribute to Kepler’s impressive 90 percent rate of students finding meaningful employment within six months of graduation. Beyond his home country, Célestin has also worked to expand Kepler’s reach in Kenya, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, and Ethiopia.
A polyglot fluent in Kinyarwanda, Swahili, French, and English, Célestin casually mentions having picked up a decent amount of Amharic while working in Ethiopia for a year, where he established a Kepler graduate employment program to bridge the gap between schooling and work. Needless to say, he’s accomplished a lot in his career so far.
Perhaps Célestin’s most significant professional accomplishment has been bringing project management to his corner of the world. Célestin was instrumental in the establishment of a project management bachelor’s program at Kepler, and now serves as the chair of the school’s Project Management Center of Excellence. Prior to this, Célestin worked in curriculum development, and earned his MBA in project management online through Southern New Hampshire University, an institution—that collaborates and is committed to providing online education to students around the world.
Célestin’s argument for the benefits of project management across industries is simple.
All organizations have projects, and very few people know even how to effectively manage projects.
All organizations have projects, and very few people know even how to effectively manage projects.
He sees the need for project management all around him, from failing government projects to projects being managed by people who don’t believe such work requires specific skills.
He applies his project management ethos to his teaching, urging his students and staff to clearly determine what they want to create, design it to meet their objectives, and understand the reasons why the final product works or not. He also emphasizes to his students the importance of learning how to learn, reassuring his students that, although they are not yet where they need to be, they will make it there.
Célestin embraces continuous learning himself. As with his language skills, Célestin is confident that he can succeed in the rest of his career by teaching himself whatever he needs to know. He’s especially interested in AI. “I really love artificial intelligence,” he says. “Those tools, when they are used correctly, they will change the world.”
Aside from his myriad academic responsibilities at Kepler, Célestin is a faithful Seventh Day Adventist and loves watching soccer and volleyball. In fact, he is the vice president of Kepler’s two volleyball teams and says spending time around these student athletes helps him unwind. “Watching their training, when they are playing, that makes me refresh my mind – so that I stay more focused on the work.”
When his busy mind encounters a quiet moment to think toward the future, Célestin says his dream project would be one detached from money and earnings – a social project making an impact by helping people move up in life. He’s not yet certain of the topic, but sees teen pregnancy, education, government, sanitation, or some other way of serving people all as options.
At just 32 years old, Célestin has already achieved so much, and the communities he will support through future projects undoubtedly benefit from his leadership and expertise.