From First Flight to New Horizons: My Nexus Rationality Camp Experience in Rwanda | Tawe K. Divine

In the second week of July 2026, I was on my first ever flight for the 7-day Nexus Rationality Camp at the African Olympiad Academy in Rwanda.

Nexus brought together 20 students to study how minds work and how better decisions get made. I was the only Cameroonian there, the other 19 were from Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, DRC, Egypt, and Rwanda - a rich blend of cultures and perspectives.

Summarily, my experience at #NEXUS was incredible, and the people were everything.

I went on a morning run with George Cai, a Harvard PhD student in Computational Neuroscience, talking life, career & tech. 

The lessons were like any other place: adverse selection, the realities founders of startups rarely talk about, telling between causation and correlation, with facts, Bayes' probability, LLM's, BLUE, non-violent communication, System 1 and 2 thinking, expected value, & Fermi estimation, and the "What is Stopping You" session gave me insight into the friction I have been struggling with, and direction to move past it. We also covered.

The teaching came from an MIT Math & CS major, the founder of Bulwark Dynamics, a Minerva CS major, an Skoltech grad in ML/AI, a CS grad at UPenn, and a PhD student at Harvard. Interesting, participants got a chance to teach something interesting of their own. After noon was even more fun: activities included basketball, fermi-thon, SETS, calisthenics, games & a few I sat out, like Rwandan dance & yoga.

Something I truly enjoyed at NEXUS was the food served at AOA - it was superb! And, obviously, j'ai beaucoup mangé, hihi. I even assisted the chef to make breakfast on day 6 and learned to make Chapati and eggs.

Visiting the Genocide Memorial in Kigali was filled with emotions and lessons. After having an insightful conversation with Edmond Iradukunda about his country's painful history, I truly saw how intentional reconciliation can rebuild an entire nation as I pictured the clean, organized and green streets of Kigali. I was left in awe of how far Rwanda has come.

In hindsight, I truly appreciate my one-on-one with Hakkei Sekine, Director of Nexus Camp, where he reframed how I see Computer Science, as a means to an end rather than the end itself. This gave me direction as I move into college and work.

From #Nexus #Rationality #Camp #2026, I am more inspired, empowered and imparted with knowledge than I could have imagined. And I am proud of the network I have gained: someone to reach out to in Nigeria, San Francisco, Boston, Nairobi, Kigali, Japan and South Africa for life and projects discussion and ideas.

Thank you Hakkei Sekine, my instructors and fellow participants at Nexus for making this a week I will struggle to forget; the African Olympiad Academy, the owner and the incredible chefs, for hosting & catering; and Sir James Akaba, for sharing this opportunity with the Open Dreams Educational NGO Community.

• Tawe K. Divine | Open Dreams