A Student’s Impactful Journey Connects Technology With Community
Driven by a deep desire to help others and shaped by his Rwandan upbringing, Germain Mucyo, MS’26, electrical and computer engineering, continuously seeks out and builds communities while applying his engineering skills to address real-world problems.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Alena Kuzub. Main photo: Germain Mucyo volunteers with Maine Initiatives, a nonprofit that supports social, economic and environmental justice through philanthropy. Photo by Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University
How a Northeastern grad student from Rwanda is uplifting Maine’s immigrant communities
Rwandan Northeastern graduate student Germain Mucyo builds community in Maine through tech, mentorship and immigrant advocacy.
Wherever Germain Mucyo goes, he seeks out community and looks for ways to support others.
In his hometown of Kigali, Rwanda, he helped develop an irrigation system for farmers as part of an electronics club project, addressing soil dehydration and improving food supply.
In college, he mentored fellow students through a Toastmasters club.
Today, the 28-year-old volunteers with Maine Initiatives, a nonprofit that supports social, economic and environmental justice through philanthropy.
“All those roles helped me to listen to people, and that’s where the zeal or the thirst for solving people’s problems comes from,” says Mucyo.
This drive to help others, he says, comes from his mother, who was always involved in community service and offering help to others, even when she had little to give.
Now a graduate student in electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern University, Mucyo is particularly interested in networks and cybersecurity. He says he especially appreciates the program’s hands-on nature.
“Every course has modules, and every module you have something to do, something to program,” he says. “Engineers are prepared to do projects as they come.”
Mucyo was born three years after the Rwandan civil war and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group, both of which shaped his childhood, sense of identity and worldview.
“My family lived through both,” Mucyo says. “We lost several close relatives, including grandparents, uncles and aunties. Each April, we gather to remember them.”
Growing up in post-genocide Rwanda, he says, meant being raised in a country where healing and rebuilding were national priorities. The aftermath affected everything from how people interacted and how communities were restructured to how children like Mucyo were taught to value peace, unity and resilience.
“I witnessed both the quiet pain and the determination of my parents and neighbors to create a better future from such devastating loss,” he says.
“There is a collective urgency to catch up with where we were held back, to reclaim lost time and opportunity. That push drives me to travel, to learn globally and to seek out knowledge and technologies that could help build a stronger Rwanda. I often find myself asking: What can I take from this experience that might benefit my country or community back home?”
Mucyo excelled at math in school and was captivated by systems and technology. That led him to study electronics and telecommunication engineering.
“I thought it was something that involves math, people and building solutions for people,” he says. “It’s something that brings people and technology, and systems [together] working for the interest of the community.”
While at the University of Rwanda, Mucyo was active in various student organizations. At Toastmasters, he says, he gained leadership skills, eventually becoming a mentor’s club leader and the vice president of education. In the Giant Electronics club, he and other young people built different solutions for real-world problems — like their irrigation system — gaining valuable hands-on experience.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News