About Me – Sandra Nyanchoka

About Sandra

Known for her dazzling smile and amazing bone structure, the Kenyan-born model began her career at age nine upon winning a competition and was featured on Coca-Cola billboards around the globe. During the 1998 U.S. embassy bombing in Nairobi, Sandra’s mother saved the ambassador’s life. Her family was granted special immigrant visas and Sandra, along with her six siblings, came to America when she was twelve.

Sandra attended Thurgood Marshall Middle School and Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland, where she was involved in many activities—both in and out of school. She especially enjoyed serving as a reporter for the Richard Montgomery Broadcasting Channel. Sandra was a member of Gap Buster Learning Center, an educational program dedicated to promoting higher levels of achievement and closing the performance gap of students by enriching and supplementing their learning experience. She represented the organization at a Youth Leadership conference in the Bahamas.

Upon graduation from high school, Sandra began pursuing a modeling career again. She was working as a model in New York before being selected for, and eventually becoming a finalist on, America’s Next Top Model, Cycle 12. Sandra is an agency-represented model with experience doing runway, catalog and commercial print modeling. She has been featured in numerous magazines and in print ads for CoverGirl, as well as on billboards in Times Square.

Sandra is a dual citizen of both Kenya and the United States. She earned a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Sandra worked for CBS in Washington, DC, and was a White House correspondent before relocating to Los Angeles. She is the founder of Travel CityZen, an online community for travelers. In addition to sharing the importance of travel, Sandra hopes her work as a journalist will bring important issues to light for an international audience.