I loved the business school [at UVU] because every single class I've learned was applicable.
I grew up in Rwanda until age 13 — a very happy, pleased, and pleasant childhood. We were one of the privileged families there. My father was the chief of staff, and we grew up knowing both the city life and where he grew up. Both of my parents grew up in very poor families. That's really one of the most profound memories I have of Rwanda.
My childhood got disturbed by the war that had started in Rwanda. It was April 6, 1994. That evening around 8:30 p.m., we were waiting for my dad to come back. We had the table set for the evening for the family meal, and then we heard a big explosion. Everyone heard it in the city of Kigali.
It was a pretty scary explosion, especially the fact that we had been in a war for four years. There was a lot of insecurity every day. We'd hear gun shootings here and there. We had a lot of internally displaced refugees who've been basically leaving the borders. We had a lot of confusion time until later they announced that my father died… And it was really hard.
We were forced to stay in the home and find shelter because there was a lot of killing happening outside of the home. Then the next day, when things had calmed down, we were able to go and witness where he died. Normally, the funeral would follow. Unfortunately, that's not what happened.
My mom and my siblings fled to Belgium through different countries of Africa. It was horror on the way. We were in the back of a truck, and we were covered. As kids, they told us not to watch outside because people were killing each other. I was pretty messed up, and I was pretty traumatized because of the horrors of the war. People were dying and all the different things we had to go through, and we lost everything.
We arrived in Belgium, and we had almost nothing. My mom pushed my sisters and me to work hard and to basically try to be self-reliant. I had a good youth. But it was also pretty tough.
I was in a Rwandese ballet company there since I was almost 14. That really helped me heal with the trauma of war and the sense of community that brought me back to the sense of life, basically. And so when I was 19, after I finished high school, I attended a university in Belgium.
When I came to UVU, it was in 2008, I believe, and I studied transportation management and logistics in Europe, which kind of is in the business field — what you guys call supply chain and operations management. Business school was the logical place for me. I've always been an entrepreneur.
I loved the business school because every single class I've learned was applicable. My most profound classes that were really helpful for me was the marketing and career success class. It was like a career development class that helped me with the next thing I ended up doing in my life.
Now I teach African dance. And I created a community, Ngoma y’Africa, the nonprofit organization I founded when I was in school about seven years ago. Our organization is a nonprofit with the purpose of helping the community of Utah and the community of the African diaspora to be able to share the cultures of Africa. We preserve the culture by getting many people from Africa involved with sharing their stories, dances, songs, or heritage. Then we also educate the community about the cultures by going through events or going to schools and workshops. We create a really supportive network for the African diaspora community.
We do partner a lot with the UVU African Diaspora Initiative because a lot of their students who are from the African diaspora can find a community through our organization where they can come share their culture. But we also offer them that sense of self-acceptance, the sense of being happy — because it’s hard to navigate the system, as I said, and it’s really hard to be able to feel like you belong sometimes in a community where you are a visible minority. So we try to build that sense of community and that sense of belonging, and we are really grateful for that partnership.
Links:
UVU Woodbury School of Business
Ngoma y’Africa Cultural Center
Ngoma y’Africa Cultural Center Instagram
UVU African Diaspora Initiative
UVU African Diaspora Initiative Instagram
