College of Education and Behavioral Sciences News

“I wanted to influence the next generation. I figured I could do that in a different way,” said Bosco Tuyisenge, a WKU Finance major from Bowling Green.

For Tuyisenge, choosing to attend college in his hometown meant choosing to serve youth in his community - youth that went to the school he went to and participated in programs he participated in. It also meant choosing to extend his knowledge and experiences to those outside his community. 

Tuyisenge explained that it was easy to say yes to WKU because “First and foremost, just my community being here was a big thing. Over time that was one of the factors that made me want to stay here and encouraged me to stay in college.” 

In any given week, Tuyisenge attends class and leads in his organizations, Why Knot Us and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. Serving on his own as well as engaging his brothers, Tuyisenge volunteers with Curbside Ministries, the Black Male Scholar Program at Bowling Green Junior High School and Boys to Men Brown Print Mentoring Program at Warren Central High School. 

“I was amongst a group of high school students that just didn’t know what they wanted to do with their lives, and I came to college to see what was out there.” 

In his volunteer time with the Black Male Scholar program and Boys to Men Brown Print, Tuyisenge engages boys in conversations connecting to social and leadership skills that they can use at their age while also exposing them to future opportunities. For example, in Spring 2023, he helped organize a WKU campus tour with his brothers in Why Knot Us for the Black Male Scholars. This introduced them to campus life and resources. 

In high school, many people spoke with Tuyisenge about attending college, and he gave much thought to determining how far away he would move to attend school. He was born in Rwanda and immigrated to the United States in elementary school. Neither of his parents graduated from college, which made him a first-generation college student. Therefore, much of the conversations he had about college came from faculty and staff at his high school, Warren Central High School. He understands the importance of those conversations when youth are considering their futures as well as the importance of having mentors.

Tuyisenge joined the second class of Why Knot Us in 2021 and has been mentoring with the Black Male Scholars program at Bowling Green Junior High School since joining. Why Knot Us is designed to establish a sense of community and connectedness through social bonding activities, academic and professional workshops, and engagement in cultural travel experiences, which assists in the retention and persistent ends to graduation from Western Kentucky University. The Black Male Scholar program is an opportunity for young men to achieve success in a supportive setting, which requires a higher and intentional level of support, and the availability of a greater array of resources. 

In 2022, Tuyisenge and his fraternity brothers in Iota Phi Theta started the Brown Print Mentoring Program and in 2023, the program began partnering with Boys to Men Leadership Group Kentucky to serve young men at Warren Central High School through a collaborative program called Boys to Men Brown Print. Boys to Men is designed to equip young men with tools necessary to succeed in education and life. Tuyisenge works with up to 50 youth multiple times a month in those two programs alone.

While numbers may not matter much to Tuyisenge in his service work, his academic pursuits are rooted in numbers. He is proud of his 3.5 overall GPA and has earned a place on the Dean’s List and President’s List during multiple semesters at WKU. He attributes this to hard work and the team of faculty and staff support around him.

“The Finance Department has one of the best staffs. They are highly ranked in the nation. They have great professors. A lot of the professors genuinely want their students to excel,” he shared.

Now, in his senior year, Tuyisenge has participated in summer internships and consistently looks for ways to incorporate finance into his activities outside the classroom.

“I wondered maybe if there was a space for me in college. I entered college with an open mind. I did not know what I wanted to do. I was here to explore.”

Tuyisenge graduates from WKU in 2024 and plans to pursue a career in personal finance.

For more information about a degree in Finance from WKU, visit www.wku.edu/finance.