A former RwandAir employee pursuing professional aviation studies in Hungary says she hopes to return home with the skills needed to contribute to the country’s aviation sector and encourage more young women to consider careers in the industry.
Ange Pamela Umwali is studying professional aviation sciences at the University of Nyíregyháza under the Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Programme, which supports Rwandan students pursuing higher education in Hungary.
Umwali worked at RwandAir for three years before moving to Hungary. She said her goal was to gain the knowledge and practical experience needed to make a meaningful contribution to aviation in Rwanda.
“I hope to return to Rwanda with the knowledge, skills and experience needed to make a significant contribution to our country’s aviation sector,” she said.
She also hopes her career will encourage more girls to pursue aviation training, particularly in piloting, a field in which she wants to see greater female participation.
“I want to show young girls that becoming a pilot is a dream they can achieve. Once I gain the required knowledge and skills, I hope to help increase the number of women in aviation, especially female pilots,” she said.
Another scholarship recipient, Gilbert Rukundo, is preparing to complete a PhD at John von Neumann University in Hungary. With nine years of experience working at RwandAir, he hopes to apply his advanced training to improving the country’s air transport operations.
Rukundo said he wanted to turn the knowledge gained through his studies into practical solutions for the airline and help advance Rwanda’s ambition to become an aviation hub in Africa.
“I want to turn the knowledge I gain in Hungary into practical solutions that support RwandAir and improve its operations, helping advance Rwanda’s vision of becoming a regional aviation hub,” he said.
The two are among 14 students who arrived in Hungary in September under the Stipendium Hungaricum Scholarship Programme. They were received on October 17 by Rwanda’s ambassador to Hungary, Margueritte Françoise Nyagahura, who urged them to remain committed to their studies and use their expertise to contribute to national development.
The 14 students make up the sixth cohort of Rwandan beneficiaries since 2021. They are studying at different levels, from undergraduate programmes to master’s degrees and doctorates, in fields including aviation, nuclear energy and technology.
Nyagahura told the students that Rwanda needed skilled professionals to support development in priority sectors and encouraged them to see their education as an opportunity to prepare for future responsibilities at home.
The Higher Education Council estimates that Rwanda spends about Rwf19 billion sending students abroad for studies in priority areas such as medicine, aviation, nuclear energy, space science, agriculture and technology.
Umwali hopes to return with the skills to advance her aviation career and encourage more young women to consider becoming pilots, while Rukundo wants to use his experience to support RwandAir’s growth.
