World-Class University
Neema Mawiyoo ’07
Kenya
Year-Round Cyclist
Like
most Laurentians on any given winter day, Neema Mawiyoo ’07
of Nairobi, Kenya, is on the move a lot. She doesn’t
travel by foot, though, but by coasting across campus on a
mountain bike bundled in a heavy winter coat and hat. It’s
the only way she can maintain her fast pace in life.
While she was attending the International School of Tanganyika
in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Mawiyoo’s college counselor
looked into opportunities that would determine if she would
study in South Africa or go to an American University in Kenya.
Those plans changed when she learned of the opportunity to
enroll at St. Lawrence immediately in January of 2003.
Mawiyoo chose St. Lawrence for several reasons.
“St. Lawrence has a good government program, with an
emphasis on international politics,” Mawiyoo says. “I
felt I could work with the music and speech and theatre departments,
which was very important to me, and the school was far enough
from the city that my parents felt a little more secure sending
me to the States after the September 11 tragedy.” She
was also drawn by the presence of a campus chapter of the Intervarsity
Christian Fellowship, a student organization that seeks to
share with students the Gospel of Jesus Christ, with which
she had been involved previously. Combine all this with an
attractive financial aid package, and she was on her way.
Mawiyoo is an active community assistant (CA), which the mission
statement of the residential learning communities office defines
as “student staff members who act as helpful resources,
program planners, mentors, community builders and policy enforcers”,
in the First-Year Program’s Gaines College. Mawiyoo has
worked closely with first-year students for two years. “This
experience has allowed me to re-assess my expectations of people,” Mawiyoo
explains. “It has allowed me to recognize the impact
my attitudes, my life choices and my expectations have on my
residents and how those factors affect their choices.”
Though this responsibility has taught her valuable lessons,
it is her commitment to entertaining that has served the campus
majority. As a music major, Mawiyoo sings with the Laurentian
Singers, the Singing Sinners, the Gospel Workshop, the Hip-Hop
and Beyond organization and, this semester, the Special Productions
ensemble, for which she performed in a jazz improvisation concert.
She is also vice president of the African Student Union, and
involved in the planning of St. Lawrence’s sesquicentennial
in 2006.
“I feel like it’s important to share from the
richness of one’s life,” Mawiyoo says. “I
have been blessed by the richness others have shared, so I
like to bring what I have to the table.”
—Chinasa Izeogu ’05
