“Life is a beautiful collection of memories. Treasure your unique collection, and enjoy sharing it with others”- Mathew Kahn
Nnadozie Ebere, Computer Science student at ALU Rwanda, has shared his unique collection of the memories and experiences that he has gathered throughout his journey at the African Leadership University.
Engaging in a Pan-African experience
Nothing could have certainly prepared Nnadozie for the Pan-African explosion that he was met with at ALU. Being surrounded by students from over 40 different African countries, he was in for quite the experience. He mentions some of the life-changing opportunities that interacting with a Pan-African community presented.
“Being surrounded by such a diverse environment broadened my knowledge and understanding of the continent, as well as built bonds and relationships that have been a great benefit to me, both personally and professionally”. As part of his journey with the diverse nationalities he engages with daily, he explores some of his observations in this feature.
Declare a mission, not a major
From starting a campus media platform that aims to demystify African stories, to founding a branding company to help African companies build their brands, Nnadozie has shown great passion for media and storytelling and attributes his ability to fully explore this passion to the nature of ALU learning.
“ALU’s learning model prioritizes self-driven learning, over theories and lectures (which can get really stifling). This has given me the opportunity to focus my learning journeys on pursuing my mission, instead of a major. It’s really just made my learning process more exciting and efficient by introducing real-world projects, experiential, peer-learning, and mentorship”.
Building employable skills
Before ALU, Nnadozie describes his understanding of the working world as one that was “virtually non-existent”. However, after going through the intensive Leadership Core Program in his first year, he’d been able to build a career foundation through the courses.
“From day one with the Leadership Core program helped me build skills such as critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, communication for impact, and managing complex tasks which essentially equipped me with problem-solving capabilities which are highly employable in the job market. As a result, I was able to bag some cool internship opportunities with organizations like ALFC.”
Being a part of a community
It’s clear from his chuffed demeanour that the best part of his experience as an ALU student is the community and the activities they engage in. Nnadozie takes us through the rich student life culture of ALU.
“The Student Life team works tirelessly to make sure that our learning experience doesn’t stop after leaving the classroom. From community gatherings to arts festivities, and many other events tailored to capture the diversity of the community, we get the opportunity to build ourselves holistically by participating in games, jam sessions, fashion shows, philanthropic visits, and networking sessions. We also get the chance to take ownership of our student experience by joining or creating student-led organizations with peers of similar interests- in my case, it was the campus media platform!”
Access to a network of inspiring people
As he names some of the cool people he has had the chance to meet and listen to, Nnadozie doesn’t forget to also mention the gems they’ve dropped that impacted his life.
“I got to access an unprecedented network of leaders and decision-makers in multiple fields such as business, technology, conservation, finance, or politics. This network exposes our students to life-changing opportunities. I met people like Mzamo Masito who is literally in my industry and was able to draw some key insights from his discussion”.
After wrapping up on some of the ways that his university has been made memorable and unique, Nnadozie, without fail, ends the note by declaring that out of all the cool memories and opportunities he’s accessed whilst at ALU, the best part of it all has been the community and the beautiful culture that is being created.
