At the American University in Yola Adamawa State, matriculation is actually called a ‘pledge ceremony.’ And this year, the university had all of 78 students to partake in that ceremony, which was witnessed by family members and friends. After the official assignment, but still in the middle of the celebrations, Professor Margee Ensign, the President of the highbrow ivory tower, told us much about her stay in Nigeria and the kind of education and knowledge the institution is imparting in Nigeria. She spoke to Frank Ikpefan in Yola.
You just had a fantastic programme at a time like this when insurgency is still a story in this part of the country, what was it about?
It was a time to welcome our new class to American University and it is one of our biggest in several years which is wonderful. I think that means that parents realise that insurgency is on the wane and security has improved up here in the North-East. It’s a moment to really define for them who we are and why we are different. As you heard me say, we are really unusual as a university. Our vision is to always focus on our students, learning about the challenges in Nigeria and Africa, and the world and finding solutions and connecting that to our community service.
So it was a moment to tell them that they are part of our new community, a new family. We say we are here for you, you have to work hard, you have to work at your highest potential, be excellent. you have to be honest, get some integrity and you have to participate in not just classes but in your society around you.
So it’s a special day for us. Well it’s a long way back. I would like to remember what it was like when I went away to school. It was time to be a little scared because you are with new people, you don’t know if you are going to fit in, so we really just make them feel welcome.
When did you come into Nigeria and where were you born?
I arrived in June 2010 and was born in Los Angeles, California.
Since you were not born here, weren’t you worried about coming to Nigeria?
I grew up in a family that travelled a lot, both of my parents worked for US airlines, so I was able to start seeing the world from the time I was very young. I was not at all worried about coming to Nigeria.
I noticed that this school combines academics with development. How have you been able to do that?
Yes, that is our mission. If you look at all the literature on learning, most of it is beginning to focus on problems and solutions and give students hands on experience they bring back to the classrooms. Then they start asking questions, why are these kids here not in school? Why aren’t they reading? So it stimulates the learning. They are not separate. They are really connected more that we ever realised as teachers, and as faculty that when students are really exposed to problems, it stimulates them to start thinking about how can I contribute? What are the solutions? I teach a development class and we have our students each time we do a session and it really improves the discussion. it improves their motivation. When they just walk out the front gate and they see we have a hundred boys who can’t read and who don’t have enough food, it cannot force you to say; what can we do here to improve this? So they are not separate issues and in most universities they call it engagement scholarship, they call it community service. We say it is problem-centered learning so they are really connected.
How long have you been in Nigeria? what are the things you like about Nigeria?
I love the kindness, open mindedness, generosity, sense of humour, and vibrancy of life in Nigeria.
How about family?
I have a large family in the US. My daughter came with me when I first started working and taught at our secondary school and established some female sports programmes, especially running and volleyball. I miss all of them.
How can an individual get lucky to be part of the system here?
It is not just the JAMB. They have to take an exam here; they have to take a placement exam. Here is how it works; this is a liberal art university. The first two years, they don’t go into a major like other Nigerian universities. The students doing software engineering, or petroleum or chemistry don’t start with that. Everyone starts with a similar curriculum that is called the first year experience. Everybody is in that class. You learn how to study better, you learn how to manage your time, what the mission of this university is. They do writing classes in mathematics and sciences. They study widely in the first two years. And then they make a decision what they are going to major and minor in.
So it’s a bit of a different approach. We focus on writing, critical thinking on being able to find and evaluate resources because of course, we live in a different world in terms of library. This has been ranked one of the three best libraries in the world by the American Library Association but that is not the issue. Yes we have millions of books but the world we are living now is not having access. It’s being able to evaluate that information. So we really teach skills of evaluation. Everyone for the first two years is reading similar courses, then they major in chemistry, in petroleum engineering and business and so on in the last two years.
Now it’s going to be a bit different with our law school as you know, they will all be together in the first year and the law students will take one separate course called legal research method. But still that whole first year for all our students will be similar except for that.
Do you miss your country?
I very much miss my country, although we are certainly going through a crazy election process right now.
Do you eat Nigerian foods? Which Nigerian food interests you? can you cook Nigerian foods?
I have to be very careful about what foods I eat because I have a life threatening allergy to all nuts. That’s one of the only hard things about living here, there are nuts in so many foods. And I am a horrible cook.
How many applications do you get to receive in a year?
About four times the number of candidates that we accept because, not everybody is ready for this and if they are not ready and we do accept them, we put them in a gateway programme, gateway courses. For instance you have a student who is brilliant in science or mathematics but their English is not quite ready, they can do mathematics in science courses but they do extra work in English, in writing and reading.
those who apply are four times the number we accept. We have a huge pool applying and then we are really careful sorting who is accepted. We bring in between a 100 and 50 each semester but we have about four times that number applying. We have a lot applying not just from Nigeria but South Africa too. The pool is getting bigger and bigger of those who apply but we don’t accept everyone because not everyone is ready for this kind of education. Honestly we have been trying to balance from your country Nigeria, the six geo-political zones. We don’t want students just from the north or just students from the south. We don’t want just men. We are trying really hard to increase the number of women.
Earlier today, you said Nigeria was facing a new and a complex challenge. Can you explain that?
I believe Nigeria is full of potentials. You are right. We should look at the problems. Price of oil has dropped 72% now, right? I don’t think you used all those money coming in these entire years well. That is pretty scary. So this new administration walks in, there is no money, there are new problems. I think the president has been rightly focusing on stopping this war, which is what it was. I have all the pictures for you. It was not an insurgency, it was a disaster. So he has made really good progress at that. Some ways, the challenges with oil are going to force you to say what is next? What are the other sources of income in this country? You have many. You have agriculture. You could be the bread basket of the country, this area alone. You have minerals, you have brilliant people. Maybe it is my nature but I see promise, I see potential and I see it through our students.
How is this Nigeria’s moment considering the poverty, unemployment and other challenges facing this country?
Did you see that graph I presented earlier? And you are the biggest. So it’s your moment if you get it right, if you can educate this fast growing population, which is the reason we have these little projects like STELLA and TELA. You might think it is crazy but I think if you can educate those 11 million that are out of school, if you can educate these little kids at the front gate, they are so smart. Nigerians are so smart. Those little boys who had nothing, they were dropped off. You cannot lose anyone. First I think education is the basis of everything. If you can educate young people, you Nigerians are so creative, so innovative, and so hungry for education.
That little boy, if we can somehow figure out how to get education to these young ones, that is why STELLA and TELA are so important. TELA, which we call technology for all, is using a 1,000 tablet computers to reach 4,000 children with applications written by our students and another 18, 000 via radio. It is an experiment. The US government is funding this. We are reaching 22, 000 children. We have like seven months to improve their reading, literacy and numeracy by 50%. It is not a big win though but we think we can do it; 22,000 children, 700 sites here in Yola and about 600 students, faculty staff teaching. If we can show that in six months we can improve reading by 50% with 22,000 children, doing it all over the country is really our vision.
So I think it is your moment because of the challenges. Sometimes when you have big challenges in your personal life or in a country, the best comes forward. You can’t do it the old way. You can’t rely on oil. So what else does Nigeria have? Nigeria has many more resources. They have smart people. They just have to be dedicated to improving the society and think a little less about becoming rich.
You have spoken about Nigerian children, so what do you think of Nigerian men?
I think that Nigerian men are very handsome (Laughs).
What is the relationship between students and lecturers like here? Is it cordial?
Well who wants to learn from someone you are scared off? You don’t learn from people you are frightened of. This is the American approach and I am not saying that but that is what we are trying to do here, American style education emphasizes a really closed relationship between students and faculties. We are mentors. We are their guide. We want to know their strength and weakness. We want to know them as individuals so that we can help them learn. That is what this is all about here. So it’s not a hierarchical thing. I mean you see that we are very close to our students. We do know them; we do stop and talk to them. It’s part of the joy of being in the university, we get the opportunity to hopefully bring these young people along and nurture them. So that is just a big part of an American style approach to education and I think if you look around the world, its part of best practices now.
What are your hobbies? did you spend your last holiday in Africa?
I like to exercise a lot. I love to play squash, run, read and write. I edited one book last year and I am writing another this year. I spent my holiday in California.
How do you handle the language difference? Are you learning any Nigerian language?
I have learned some Hausa and Fulfude and would like to learn more.
