Kepler is a non-profit higher education program that brings together innovations in learning and technology. Their curriculum blends online courses from leading international universities with intensive, in-person instruction, and employment-focused learning through structured internships. Its graduates all receive a U.S.-accredited degree thanks to a partnership with an American competency-based degree program. Kepler’s pilot campus opened in Rwanda in 2013, and its goal is to create a network of universities that deliver the skills that emerging economies need for a price that students across Africa can afford.

Kepler students are recruited from a pool of high-performing applicants from low-income backgrounds, most of whom would otherwise have no access to higher education. Many are orphans of the 1994 genocide. 
 
A unique lending approach:
 
Kepler’s loans fundraising on Kiva help students purchase laptops to support their education. Kepler relies on internet-based distance learning as a key component of a quality education in a country with limited educational resources. Kepler students are able to access lectures from the best professors across the world via internet provided on Kepler’s campus and student housing. Laptops also help students find gainful employment after completing their degrees.