It was my first time to visit the United States, I had no idea that Flagstaff exists. in my
mind, the United States was all about New York and Washington. Kevin my host
suggested that we should visit Grand Canyon, and so we drove three hours from
Phoenix to Flagstaff, on our way to Canyon. Something immediately caught my
eyes, a sign that the city we just entered was the home of a university. I asked my
friend if there could be a chance of visiting Northern Arizona University before I leave
the US back to Malawi. Kevin promised to bring me back to Flagstaff the following
day, I was excited.
My first impression of Northern Arizona University was great, I met with amazing
people. I wanted an office that deals with international admission. The office that I
first went to inquire about the information gave me a map with direction to the
international student admission office direction. I was just a visitor from Malawi with
no idea of how to read campus map. Luckily I met a very good student who escorted
me, it just happened that this student had been in Tanzania which is a
neighboring country with Malawi, I felt relieved.
I joined Sustainable communities program at NAU in September 2015; I was excited
to sit under well-qualified professors with a passion for social justice. This is exactly
what I wanted to learn and bring back to Malawi. I wanted a well-rounded education
which would be relevant in my country and help impoverished communities improve
their welfare. This is what I found at NAU and I am a very happy person to be in this
program
When I came to NAU I was told about Action Learning Teams. I had no idea of what
was expected of me as a facilitator. I was scared; I thought I would not perform to
the expectation of my superiors. Later I realized that it's all about what I am
passionate about. I chose to lead Action Group for Water Advocacy (AGWA) and it
was a fantastic choice.
In This Action Learning Team, we are concerned with conservation, and sustainable
use of Water in Arizona and the whole world. We are water activist, we realize how
critical water is to Arizona and our aim is to sensitize the residents on how we can
conserve our water. However, AGWA is also concerned with how climate change
has affected some parts of the world where people have no safe drinking water. Last
semester we partnered with an organization called Thirst project to raise funds to
build a well in Swaziland Africa. This is one of the poorest nations on earth with a
high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. Students came up with creating ideas of raising money
to support this community.
AGWA is still raising funds for this project; our students are passionate about serving
the underprivileged population of Swaziland. Our hope is that by the end of this
project students will be equipped with skills of democratic leadership, and this will
help them when they leave NAU.
I am super excited to have this opportunity, I am learning a lot in Action Learning
Teams and me know that the skills I am learning from leading this group will help me
change my society. Thank you NAU for coming with this idea.