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An Amazing Experience

Chinaza Okonkwo

Courage and Community

Mentorship and Inspiration

The Barbara Voorhees Mentor Program helps first-year students at Douglass Residential College excel academically and get involved at Rutgers while also providing an opportunity for upper-class mentors to serve as role models and leaders. “We really want to help our students become very actively engaged in their education and find what they’re really passionate about,” says Katherine Birckmayer, an assistant dean at Douglass who directs the mentor program. “The mentors play a key role in this process.”

As a Voorhees mentor, Chinaza helps facilitate discussions in “Knowledge and Power: Issues in Women’s Leadership,” a women’s and gender studies course that’s a requirement for Douglass students. She also meets with students individually and takes a special course for mentors, “Mentoring: Leadership and Practice.” “I learn so much about myself,” Chinaza says of the experience. “It forces you to be not just a leader, but an adviser.” Learn more.

A Community for Living and Learning

Chinaza lives in the Human Rights House, part of a group of special-interest houses at Douglass Residential College known as the Global Village.

The majors of students living at the Global Village run the gamut from theater arts to French to the sciences, says Danielle Gougon, an assistant dean at Douglass, noting how students thrive in the interdisciplinary nature of the program. “It’s a way for them to expand their thinking and educate each other,” she says. Learn more.

The transition to college can be an intimidating one, even when you grew up just a few miles from campus. For Chinaza Okonkwo, now a junior at Rutgers–New Brunswick, the close-knit community of women at Douglass Residential College, the women’s residential college at Rutgers, made all the difference. “Living at Douglass really helped me during my first year,” says Chinaza, who is from Piscataway.

Now Chinaza mentors other Douglass students and lives in the Human Rights House, a special-interest community of 20 students in the Jameson Residence Hall. Students from the Human Rights House, who have been studying Romania and children’s rights, traveled to Romania over winter break to meet with educators and deliver educational toys.

Born in Nigeria, Chinaza came to the United States when she was 4. A double-major in criminal justice and history, she hopes to work in Africa after graduating.

 

LIKE A “LITTLE CITY”

“As soon as I got to Rutgers, I really fell in love with it. There’s a really great sense of community here. Rutgers is like a little city. Being here makes me feel like I’m in the real world, doing grown-up things.”

CLOSE-KNIT COMMUNITY

“I live on Douglass in an all-female environment. Coming from high school to college is a really big transition, but having a bunch of girls with the same kind of career goals really helped. It fosters a sense of community.”

Rutgers inspired me to have a more global perspective.

—Chinaza Okonkwo, criminal justice and history major

TRIP TO ROMANIA

“The students in the Human Rights House traveled to Romania over winter break. We learned more about children’s rights and how those rights are applied to that country’s child welfare system. We visited NGOs and worked with social workers in various Romanian communities. The trip was a life-changing experience that helped me realize I have the potential to bring about change in the world.”

ACTIVISM AT RUTGERS—AND BEYOND

“I participated in the 16 Days of Activism program at Douglass, and I was a videographer on a trip to Uganda with a religious nongovernmental organization, the African Christian Fellowship. In high school I wasn’t very open about going abroad, but after being at Rutgers, meeting so many people, and learning about different things, it gave me the courage to go to Uganda—even though I’m terrified of flying. Rutgers inspired me to have a more global perspective.”

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX

“I like the fact that Rutgers is a big school. There are so many different people here, and there’s something for everyone. I’m involved in campus ministries at Rutgers, and I feel like if I went to a smaller school, I wouldn’t have been able to find those organizations. It’s so diverse here, and it makes it easy to find a group of people you feel comfortable around. You can’t be close-minded at Rutgers. Because you’re in this diverse environment, you’re forced to think outside the box.”