74. Combining Passions in Chemical Engineering and Business Management, Finding Community and Being Resourceful: a Student Tale from Zimbabwe to Bucknell University with Omuhle Ndhlovu

When Omuhle Ndhlovu stepped onto the campus of Bucknell University, she carried with her more than just textbooks; she brought a vision for change that stretched all the way from Zimbabwe to the heart of higher education. Our latest episode shines a spotlight on this vivacious chemical engineering and business management student, as she regales her journey, a testament to the power of meshing personal passion with academic rigor, a narrative that's sure to resonate with anyone looking to carve out a meaningful path in the world.

In this episode we discuss:

• The role that extracurricular activities play in shaping the college experience.
• Transformative encounters—from conferences like the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in Florida to vital campus networks like the National Society of Black Engineers—offering a firsthand look at how building bridges can lead to uncharted territories in both personal and professional growth.
• Strategies gleaned from the trenches of time management and the trenches of seeking help when the going gets tough. 
• The importance of creating support systems, embracing the power of tutoring, and the art of studying smarter, not harder. 

Plug in, power up, and let's chart the course to a future brimming with potential, guided by the stories and strategies shared in this not-to-be-missed exchange.

Connect with Omuhle:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/omuhl__e/
LinkedIn. https://www.linkedin.com/in/omuhlendhlovu/
Toastmasters Speach: Post | Feed | LinkedIn

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome everyone. Welcome to the College and Career Ready podcast. Today we have Olu Klee, and she is a second year college student at Bucknell University and she is a double major in chemical engineering and business and engineering management. We're very excited to have her here today. Welcome to the College and Career Ready podcast. Thank you, sonia. Introduce yourself to our audience by telling us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Hi everyone. My name is Omwishe Letiwenglovu and, as Sonia already mentioned, I'm a second year student at Bucknell, pursuing a double major in chemical engineering and business management. A little bit about me is I'm kind of multifaceted. I'm really driven by a mission to improve the living conditions in my home country, Zimbabwe. So I'm an international student at the moment and I want to contribute towards change in my country through engineering research as well as entrepreneurial innovation and youth empowerment, and so I've been engaging in engineering research as my major and, as you know, research on the side, and I'm also involving myself in entrepreneurship through the work that I do here at school and some co-curricular activities I'm engaged in. I'm currently also working on initiatives that aim to empower young people in Zimbabwe.

Speaker 1: 1:33

I love your mission and you know we have a lot of parent listeners who are students right now from high school and have no idea what we're going to want to pursue. What interests them? Can you tell me about yourself? How did you determine that this is the field of study that you were interested in, and when did that happen?

Speaker 2: 1:53

Firstly, I want to say if you don't know what you want to pursue, don't panic, it's all right. I did not know what I wanted to pursue. At some point I was like I want to be a pilot, and I was like I want to be a neurosurgeon. And then look at me I'm studying chemical engineering and business, and I didn't even have any clue about business. I enrolled into the African Leadership Academy, which is a pan-African institute, and part of their mission was to raise innovative leaders who are going to bring change to Africa, and they were focused on entrepreneurship.

Speaker 2: 2:25

And then you could also choose to concentrate on what you loved. So I really loved math and I was like, fine, I will take sciences, math, physics and chemistry, but then, at the same time, I had to take entrepreneurship and these pan-african courses. And so in doing that, I came to realize that, okay, I really love science, but I also love how practical entrepreneurship seems to be, especially in this day and age. I also love how practical entrepreneurship seems to be, especially in this day and age, and I was like how do I combine those things? And I'm looking at the challenges that we have in my country, like water crisis, energy crisis, and I'm like, okay, fine, you need scientific research to address those issues, but you also need innovation to come up with certain prototypes that could directly be used by people.

Speaker 2: 3:04

And so when I was applying to college, I was like I need something that I'm going to love doing and something that is going to help me have an impact in the future. And I was like chemical engineering is so diverse. You can venture into anything after you've studied it. Like there is food, there is medicine, there is energy. And I said this is it for me as someone who likes to explore. I need something that's that diversified.

Speaker 1: 3:26

From what I hear from your story and I think this is something that I really want to bring to the forefront is that you found a course or a field of study that you were good at right was math but then you didn't just think, okay, I'm good at math, what you know, what works well with this, but then you started thinking about what was your personal mission and what was something that would attract you personally, and that's how you ended up finding this little, beautiful, perfect match. And the other thing that I like is you are interested in entrepreneurship. However, you're still furthering your education, and I think there's a lot of students right now. Entrepreneurship is a big thing. You know. Everybody wants to be an entrepreneur, and still you decided to focus not just on entrepreneurship but on furthering your education. Why do you think it's important, if you want to be an entrepreneur, to continue to further your education at the same time?

Speaker 2: 4:24

I feel like a college degree is very valuable in whatever field or study you choose to have. We could put it on the surface level and say it's for credibility within our society. But then, at the same time, it's like I think the process of going through college challenges you critically and it also equips you with certain skills of like collaboration and, you know, certain interpersonal skills that set you up for the future. So for me it was a matter of, yes, I really like entrepreneurship, but I just can't wake up and say I'm gonna start a business, like I need skills that would equip me in order to do that right. And for me it's like what kind of entrepreneurship am I looking into and do I have the capacity or the capabilities? And I felt like furthering my education would like help me set me up, like it's a stepping stone in that direction. And, to be honest, I was interested in entrepreneurship before coming to Bucknell University. But coming to Bucknell has just enhanced that excitement in me.

Speaker 2: 5:32

I came here and one of my part-time jobs is working at the Small Business Development Center here at Bucknell and what I do is I consult for the small businesses and these are like small enterprises that are just setting up and like interacting with those people was like wow, people have all these amazing ideas and like they're allowing, they're trusting our student consultants to contribute towards their ideas.

Speaker 2: 5:57

So we sit there, we prototype with them, we do market research with them and I'm like this is really nice. I would like to do this. I don't think I would have gained that exposure had I not enrolled into Bucknell and been like on the university track. And then this year I decided we also have like a business pitch competition here, and so I participated in it last year because I was like it's fun, I really want to get involved in this. Then this year I'm like I really like this, but really want to get involved in this. Then this year I'm like I really like this, but I want to get involved in terms of like the planning of it. And when I look at all the opportunities that I keep having that keep enhancing my excitement, I'm like I wouldn't have had these opportunities if I didn't get to go to college. So it's like, yes, it's college for the education system, but it's also for the people that you're going to meet and for the other opportunities that you get to do, which are your extracurricular activities.

Speaker 1: 6:47

Absolutely. I agree 100% with you on that, and you know what. We're going to dive a little bit more into that one. Let's take it a step further back, because there was something that you mentioned earlier, which was it's okay if you don't know what you want to do, right when you're in high school. What would you advise parents and students to take advantage to explore their options and interests at the high school level, to kind of define what career path they would like to take? So are there any tips that you would recommend students in high school for parents to encourage their teams to explore options and to see what field they're interested in?

Speaker 2: 7:25

Definitely, I would say, invest in your passions and your interests, talents. So if you're gifted in something or if you really feel strongly and passionate about a certain activity, do it. If there's a club at your school, participate in it. If there's no club, do some research about what is there in your community or start the club. You never know. There's someone else who is interested in the same thing as you and they are also like oh, but it's not there, you know.

Speaker 2: 7:55

So I would say, at least for what I did is I realized I was very passionate about public speaking and debating when I was finishing primary school. So when I went to high school I just I involved myself in the public speaking club, in the debate club, and I just grew there, I made my community there and then, as time went on, I realized, oh, I also have other interests peer education, that but it's like if I hadn't put myself out there then I wouldn't have realized any of those things and it's like sometimes it doesn't have to necessarily be aligned with your. How do I put this? Say, you think you want to be a doctor, but then you're passionate about things like model United Nations debate, things which are like in the arts sector and the policymaking sector. And then you're like let me not do those things because I want to be a doctor. No, like, don't limit yourself, explore them but at the same time, be on that track, because those things come with certain skills that doctors do need interpersonal skills.

Speaker 1: 8:57

So I'll keep yourself up there, get involved you mentioned about the importance of you know, especially those who want to be an entrepreneur the advantages that you have come across just going through college and the experience and the networking. Tell us more about the networking opportunities that you have come across, one that you've explored, didn't even realize it until you got into college.

Speaker 2: 9:25

So here at Bucknell and I think it's like the US at large there's a very there's a very good relationship between alumni and their alma maters.

Speaker 2: 9:36

Like I have not experienced something like this before, and so there are a lot of opportunities where we have alumni come back and they're like you have an alumni branch, you have an alumni um hour and it's like you get you get to have those places where you go and you just talk to the alumni and it's it's really at your discretion what questions you ask. It's like what's beneficial to you. So do you want to know about the experience when they were at Bucknell, or do you want to know about their experience when they were at Bucknell, or do you want to know about their experience after they graduate from college? And these kind of opportunities have come from different spheres. It's like within the college that I'm enrolled in, because we have three colleges here in my university. Sometimes it's through the career center that we have here at school and sometimes it's through clubs. The alumni were in the certain clubs and they want to come back and talk to the students who are currently in the clubs. It's amazing.

Speaker 1: 10:32

I love that. I love that. Tell us about the clubs that you're a part of and how you came across those clubs, and then tell us about the events that you participated recently.

Speaker 2: 10:41

So the clubs that I'm a part of here is. The first engagement I had with the College of Engineering was Engineering Accelerators, which is like a pre-college program for Bucknell, but it's for students that are already enrolled, that just haven't started. So I came when I first came to America. I didn't come straight to start university, I came two months earlier for that program and that was like conducting research with professors, but it's before you are enrolled into Bucknell. So that was the first, and through that program I got to meet other engineering students who happened to be my friends to date and some of my classmates. And then we had a pre-orient. We have different pre-orientation programs and one of them is called engineering success alliance. Engineering success alliance is, then, an organization that continues even post orientation. So we all heard about that and we're all like we're engineers, we have to do that, and so I'm a part of the engineering success alliance here at Bucknell and we're basically a group of students from underrepresented identities and economic backgrounds and what we do is we study together, we get help in calculus and other classes, and it's just a community, honestly Right. And then I then joined the National Society of Black Engineers, nsbe, which is we have a chapter here on campus and there are chapters everywhere. Nsbe was like with Bucknell is a predominantly white institute, so they allow they're very few students of color, and NSBE is an engineering group for specifically black engineers. So that was really important for me. With my identity. I've attended a conference for NSBE. That's the other fun thing is, all these organizations have conferences. Last year we had the 50th conference anniversary for NSBE and it was really nice to meet other engineers from across America and they also have chapters in other continents outside of America, which is really nice. And then I'm also a part of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and this is our chemical engineering students chapter here at Bucknell. We recently went for a conference in Florida with AICHE and that was amazing.

Speaker 2: 15:18

I was surrounded by so many chemical engineers, from first year to professionals to licensed engineers. It was amazing. We had companies come and present their work. We had graduate schools come to sort of like present what chemical engineering graduate school would look like. We also had workshops. We had professional workshops, we had graduate school workshops, we had industry-based workshops. You could explore everything and get a taste of what everything could potentially look like and the networking opportunity was immense. We literally had a night that was dedicated to networking. It was like oh, this is networking evening and we all just had this. Stand up tables and that's all we did have conversations and exchange linkedin handles and, of course, insta at home, beautiful, beautiful.

Speaker 1: 16:05

I love this. How did you find out about the program, about the accelerator program?

Speaker 2: 16:09

I was invited, which is amazing. That's why I I really had. I was like, okay, bucknell is the school for me, because, yes, I got my acceptance. And I was like, okay, everything looks really good, I could start preparing for college. And they were like, hey, we also think you might be interested in this and we're inviting you and everything is fully funded. You just have to come, research and get to know other people. And I was like this sounds like a good opportunity, especially for someone who's never been to this place, and that you get to come and be here with only 20 people so not the whole university hasn't restarted yet and it's like it was really good for me because I imagine, had I come here when everyone else had was already here, I would have felt overwhelmed, right and I managed to see the campus.

Speaker 2: 16:56

I'd never had a campus tour, I'd only seen the school online, so I managed to come here see the campus, get to know all the buildings that are there, get to invest myself in the community and form some relationships before school starts and everyone else comes here.

Speaker 1: 17:13

I love that and you know, believe it or not, there's a lot of colleges and universities that have these opportunities, but not everybody says yes. So you might get invited right as a student, but, believe it or not, not, a lot of students will actually take advantage of the opportunity, right?

Speaker 2: 17:32

I think there needs to be some like awareness, because I didn't know about it. Like someone talks, we need to talk about it a lot and be like, hey, those opportunities exist and they could be very important, especially if you're an international student.

Speaker 1: 17:48

Absolutely, and even new to you know a college campus or being away from home. Even if you're in, you know in the States, but still being away from home is a way to come home, and so there are a lot of opportunities. Take advantage of those to our peer listeners. Inform yourself teens who are listening to us, inform yourself the opportunities that are at the college of interest right that you are planning to attend or that you've been accepted to Start looking for organizations because that's really going to attend, or that you've been accepted to start looking for organizations because that's really going to help you build your community. And I'm going to transition a little bit here.

Speaker 1: 18:24

I listened to your Toastmasters speech, which I love, I absolutely love. I'll make sure to have a link on our show notes so our listeners can can hear it. And the title was it have you ever felt out of place? And I love, I love that, I love that speech that you have, because I know you're an international student and I know your experience can still be different. But still, even even students, um, here in America, even if they're going to college here in their own country, going to a new place, going to a new campus, going to a new city or a new state makes them feel out of place, and you're at a university where the majority are white, right, and it can be a little challenging, but still you found community, you found a support network. Tell us a little bit about that experience and what you would recommend here in St Students to really feel empowered, regardless of where they're at, to find their new home.

Speaker 2: 19:35

Firstly, thank you so much. I'm happy that you loved my speech. So I think, with regards to feeling out of place, I do agree that it comes in different forms and in different ways, and especially now that I've heard to travel to other states in America. I was recently talking to a friend and I'm like every time I get to a new state I'm like is this still the same country? Because there's just there's so many differences and so I'm like I get how some people would also relate to my speech, even if they're still in America but coming from a different state, and I would say so.

Speaker 2: 20:12

I would say that I am some level introverted, but and like that could be difficult, especially when you move to a new place where you know no one and you you're not as extroverted. You just can't. You're not that person who tends to initiate conversations, right, but I would say it's always helpful to when there are events like there are a lot of events in college, like colleges, every weekend there's something. It's like a crafts event or come and paint, or like games or something like that. It's always nice when you go for those events and you work on something with other people. Sometimes you don't even need to initiate the conversation. People would just be like oh, do you know how to play this game? Come and play with us, and so they now incorporate you into it and soon they're going to start talking to you because you're in that space with them and working on that certain thing.

Speaker 2: 21:06

So I'd say it's always helpful to attend events that are there on campus. They help you to meet other people and different people than the people you might have already found to be your comfort people, right. And then the other thing is they are multicultural events. I found that like going for those. It's also an opportunity to sort of like meet people and engage with people. So, definitely, keeping an open mind and trying to find a way. You don't always have to initiate a conversation, but sometimes you can offer to help someone and then they'll be like oh, then they introduce you to their friends or something like that.

Speaker 1: 21:44

Yeah, you know I like that. You said that. You said offer that help, because I've heard this many times, especially in recent guests that I had here on the podcast is, when you meet someone, instead of thinking what they can do for you is you approach them with what you can do for them and how you can support them on their mission and their goals, and this definitely opens the opportunity for you all to start building a relationship because you're there more of a support, rather than looking for that help for yourself. That's very that's true, I love that and okay, so give me some tips now, because if you, until you, told me now that you're introverted, I would have not said you are an introverted student because of everything.

Speaker 1: 22:34

I think I'm introverted, like in between Okay okay, because I would say definitely do not show the qualities of an introvert, but tell me a little bit more. So when you feel introverted, what do you feel? What are some tips for parents who have students who are just shy and who are introverted? What are some tips that you would recommend to help their child get out of their comfort zone and out of being introverted, into being a little bit more outspoken and get to meet other people.

Speaker 2: 23:09

My mom would always tell me, go talk to them Like, oh, go, start a conversation. And that was always difficult for me, especially when I was little, because it's like I just can't go up to people and just randomly start a conversation, right. But I realized that when you put me in a space or when you put me around people who do something that I like, it's easier for me to start talking right. Like if you put me in a space where it's like very social and it's like sort of like a party environment and stuff, I will not, I will, I will stand in one corner quietly the whole time but say you put me in a space and there's a group of people and they're maybe they're debating the most current news. I, I feel I feel the urge to want to go there and be like yeah, I, I read about this too and I think this and that.

Speaker 2: 24:04

So, like, when I'm placed in environments that have things that I like, I feel it's easier for me to open up and engage. But when I'm put in environments where it's like it's not even close to anything I'm interested in, I just close in even more. So I really don't know how it works, but it's like and sometimes it's like it takes time, like sometimes I meet a certain group for the first time and I'm just quiet, I'm observing, I'm not like, oh, I don't want to talk, it's the normally I'm observing. Then the second time I engage with't want to talk. It's the normally I'm observing. Then the second time I engage with them. By the time I engage with them with the third time I'm like more, like I've kind of observed and seen how I can relate with them and then I'm starting to sort of be like that. So it happens a lot. I get it a lot with my classmates. They're like no, I thought you were so quiet, but now you talk a lot. I. I'm just like, I've adapted, so it's yeah.

Speaker 1: 25:00

So I think the key to success listening to your conversation and to you know your feedback is really having self-awareness on your interests. Because if you are, if you have that self-awareness on what interests you, then you find people who have the same interests and then when you have that connection, then that opens the opportunity for conversation. Definitely. You've put it well. I love that Super, super. One thing that I wanted to ask you is how to balance academic and extracurricular activities, because you are very involved in a lot of things, which is great, because I think you definitely enjoy the networking and that's definitely going to prepare you for the future. But how can you balance it all?

Speaker 2: 25:49

Well, I would say that it's preparation and a lot of task and time management. One word to describe it is discipline. So I'm double majoring currently and I have two on-campus jobs on the side, and then I have my clubs and I have public speaking because I really love public speaking clubs and I have public speaking because I really love public speaking, so I invest in it, right. So I have public speaking and I'm also working on some projects. What I do is I know that right now, at this time of my life, school is like my number one priority for me. So I always ensure that I have my school tasks I know about them well in time and I have them planned out to be done like first and in time and then everything else comes after that. So, like, my schedule during my normal weekly schedule is a balance between work and school and I make sure I start from like 8.30 until 5. I don't want to be doing work or school after 5. After 5, I want to be doing my extra things that I love, but it does happen. I'm an engineering student. Those homeworks take more than three hours, so when that happens, then that's when it's important that I need to be well ahead in terms of, like, my deadlines, so that I can space it out and be like I'll do one hour today of this subject and then do this and do that right and so, um, it's really time and task management. I can't give it one answer and, honestly, no, no one thing works for everyone. It's like different for each and every person. For me, the thing is I, I am, I love google calendar. My google calendar is that's where if someone says, oh, we're inviting you for this, I say please put it on my gmail, like, like, and I and my friends even know now they'll be like oh, there's this, this, this, I'll send you a gcal invite. I'm like thank you, because that helps me too. So it's like you need those tools to help keep you on track. So, with gcal, I now know that, okay, today I have this, these places to be, these classes to attend to, and I have to show up at work for a shift for about two hours. So how much time do I have to spare for myself, and am I going to use that time to relax or am I going to use that time to do something? You know and like?

Speaker 2: 28:22

I normally plan like in week, in sort of like week segments. Sunday is like, yay, let's look at the G-Cal and fit in what needs to be fit in. And then Friday is like, okay, let's go back to the tasks and see which tasks did we not finish. And then I start saying need to finish this, need to finish that. So it's GCal. I use Todoist for reminders of like oh task, this is due in the next three days. And then, well, our college uses Moodle to sort of like track all your classes. I don't think if GCal didn't exist, I think I would lose my mind.

Speaker 1: 28:59

So tell me where you learned how to use GCal. Was it until you got to college? Did you take a course or is it something you just learned how to do on your own?

Speaker 2: 29:08

Well, in high school we used Outlook and so I used the Outlook calendar. And then when I came to Bucknell, the whole system is within Google. I think my first semester I wasn't really aware of how I could use it wisely. I just had my and that was Eats, right. And then my professors went out say, oh, I really want to come and talk about this topic, can I have office hours? They'll be like look into my G-Cal.

Speaker 2: 29:41

So then I started to realize that they put everything on their gcal. Like great, I'm gonna do that. So I put in my work hours on gcal. I put in my meals, because for me lunch is very important if I don't take that lunch break none. So I'm like, let me put in some meals so that no one puts meetings during those times. That's like I need time to reset as a person and eat as well. And so I started putting everything on GCal.

Speaker 2: 30:03

If it's like a club meeting, I had my club meetings there and when they recur and stuff, and honestly it just started to make things easier for me. I didn't do those things where you get double booked, because I used to do that a lot First semester. I'll be like be like, oh, I have a meeting with this and I'm like I also said I'll go for that. And then I'm now like panicking, I'm overwhelmed, I'm stressed. But it's like, now it's easier and I can easily follow and be like okay, so on Monday I have I have to go to work in the morning, then I have to go for statistics, then I have fluids, then I have lunch and so I can plan and be like maybe I should do this task for work and then do statistics and then do fluids, so that my day has a flow and I'm not stressed when I'm going for each event yeah, I love that, and you know the fact that you are honest to say, oh, no idea that first semester.

Speaker 1: 30:54

and I kind of figured it out as I went, because a lot of students right now would hear you or parents and they're like, oh my gosh, she must have just been organized this whole time, but it took a little bit of learning her. Yeah, I love that. And so parent listeners, especially parents of high school students, and even if it's college students, but high school students as well, especially if learn or teach your child how to manage your time, that is an essential skill that can help them as they transition into college yes, it's very helpful, it's very powerful, and they talk about it a lot too here at college, so you will get tips.

Speaker 2: 31:31

Someone will be like, oh, I use this, I use that, so you will figure it out, you'll figure it out.

Speaker 1: 31:38

Um, beautiful. And then, in regards to self-awareness, one thing that you mentioned that I love is is you said in your notes be aware of what you can do and what you cannot do.

Speaker 2: 31:52

So tell us a little bit about that oh my god, that is in college, when they give you a group project. Know your skills, know your strengths, know your weaknesses. Because college the tasks can be very difficult. No, they can be very challenging. My mom always says I should use the word challenging and not difficult. They can be very challenging. So when you know what you can do and what you can take, you can easily, like, get through certain tasks and certain things.

Speaker 2: 32:28

If you're given an assignment and for me, for example, I'm always transparent about this, I'm not the best at coding and, pursuing an engineering degree, they constantly want you to code, and I'm not even doing computer science. I can imagine what they have to do. I'm doing chemical engineering and I'm asked to code, sometimes for certain data. And at first I used to be so scared what if they ask me to code? Like, what am I going to do? And then I realized I need to communicate. So, instead of communicating, hey, I'm not really good with coding. So when we have a group project, I'm like, hey, I'm not really good with coding, but I could organize the data on Excel because I'm very good at Excel and I could write this in the report because I know I have really good writing skills, right. So then we now divide the tasks in the group and someone is like okay, if you can't code, I'll take the coding part, you deal with the writing, you deal with this, right. And if it's an individual task, then I have an advantage in going to.

Speaker 2: 33:26

We have study help sessions called like TLC, which is the Tutoring and Learning Center, teaching and Learning Center. I can go there and tell them I have this task and I am struggling here because I cannot do this right. And so the person who's there helping me knows where to start in terms of helping me. They're not trying to sort of figure out, firstly, what's my challenge and what is the challenge at hand, right? So I've really found self-awareness to be a big thing and I've really started acknowledging that I really don't know everything. But that doesn't mean that I should shy away from doing the things. I need to ask for help and I need to communicate with my professor if, if something is like a bit too much, and when you communicate and get the help, you realize, wow, it's actually I could do this.

Speaker 1: 34:19

I love that. That is so beautiful that you share that. Because in our in you know, in America, in our educational system, we're unconsciously led to believe that we have to be good at everything. Right, like you have to be really good at everything, and nobody's really good at everything. We all have our unique gifts and interests and things that we're just naturally skilled at. However, I've always said you are naturally skilled at certain things. However, if you have an interest in a skill that you do not have fully developed yet, get the resources, find the help to help you develop those skills, and I think that's exactly what you're saying. And the other thing that you mentioned that I think we want to bring to the forefront is being resourceful and knowing no, I shouldn't say knowing, let me rephrase that and being comfortable in asking for help, because there are so many resources out there, but sometimes students are just afraid to ask for help. What do you think is the reason behind students being shy, of saying I get this, I need, need help I think there is.

Speaker 2: 35:33

There's a culture within society to for us to have to know most things and like oh, if you made me pass your degree in stem, it means you're smart. So if you ask for help, it's going to appear like you're not so smart after all. And that's sad, to be honest, because STEM is hard. Even everything is hard, and the reason why we go to college is because we're trying to learn those things right. We don't know them.

Speaker 2: 36:05

There's a phrase that people like throwing around here. It's that study smart, not hard. And the most clearest example of study smart, not hard is if you're doing an assignment and you get stuck, don't spend tons of hours trying to. I mean, do some research. But if you see that you're stuck, ask your classmates. They might have figured it out in five minutes. It's going to take your classmate 10 minutes to tell you what they did to figure out a thing. Then it would have taken you two hours and a lot of YouTube videos for you to watch and try to understand. It might end up even getting well confused.

Speaker 2: 36:43

So it's like study smart and not hard. And like do an assignment with other people makes it so fast. Like collaboration and teamwork, the assignments just move very fast than when you try and do it by yourself. And that also speaks to the idea of how do I balance time in school and and I work with my classmates on on certain things, because if I did all my homeworks alone, those homeworks, those questions are difficult. Yes, and sometimes I don't understand every concept in class, but sometimes what I miss my classmates got. What they missed I got. So when we come together and they're like oh, I see, we need to do this here, and I'm like and then we do this, and then it takes us less time than it would have taken us doing it individually.

Speaker 1: 37:31

I love it. I love it. We've talked about in our conversation today. We've talked about support system resourcefulness, asking for help, finding your community. I mean, these are all like the key factors that really make any student successful and I say any student, because it really can be any student if you know how to use the resources, how to find your support system and how to find your community, and I really appreciate you sharing that with us. So, before we leave, there's two things I want. I want you to just bring a high level shout out to Bucknell University. Can you tell us some of the things that you've loved about Bucknell University?

Speaker 2: 38:13

And if someone is considering a university, why do you think this should be one to consider? I love that Bucknell is a small university setup. I love that because it's the amount of opportunities that are. There are a lot right, and those opportunities are accessible to every member of the community because of how small it is. If you're considering undergraduate education, I would definitely recommend it, because I started doing research when I was in my first year and I have friends who have told me they can't get into research programs in their universities because research is for, like, seniors and grad students.

Speaker 2: 38:47

But Bucknell is so undergrad focused. They give those opportunities to undergraduate students. You can start doing research as early as your first year and you can do it for as long as you want. And these the support system is the biggest thing for me support academically, support in terms of like sociality, like integrating into the space I would as an undergrad student, I would say I can't imagine being in any other place because of those support systems that I've gained and the opportunities that I have. The walk is obviously different for everyone depending on what you like, what you're interested in and what you want to do at the future, but it's like you still get supported in whatever path you decide to choose.

Speaker 1: 39:35

Beautiful, beautiful. And last but not least, tell us about a special program that you are working on. Hopefully it can launch this year. Tell us about that.

Speaker 2: 39:46

Well, so I'm currently working on a networking hub for young people in Zimbabwe. It's called Igusasa, which is a Develuid, my mother language. That means the future, and this networking hub is going to focus on equipping young people in Zimbabwe with early career development skills as well as entrepreneurial skills, and I just want to create the vibrant community and space where all those different talents from the different borders of the country can come together and collaborate, learn and grow.

Speaker 1: 40:19

Beautiful. I can't wait to hear more about that program, and we have just been pleased with your presence and you sharing these beautiful tips and your own experience. Is there anything else that I should have asked you and I didn't that you would like to share with our audience?

Speaker 2: 40:38

I think we covered most of the topics and I'm really pleased. I'm really excited for people to listen to this and to get whatever skills and whatever tips they might get from it.

Speaker 1: 40:50

I love that and please follow her on LinkedIn. I will make sure to have that on our show notes so you can hear about the amazing things that she's working on, so you can network as well and so your child can start having one other college connection, especially if they're interested in engineering or engineering management or the things that she's talked about. Thank you so much, mamoukle, for being here. Thank you, and hopefully we'll have you in maybe in a couple of years to see where you're at in your journey. And thank you for being here with us.