I also met Charles through Peter at the media event. His real name was difficult to pronounce so he told everyone to call him by his “American name”, Charles. I didn’t get to talk to him very long, but he appeared easy going and interesting. For a little while, he talked of his childhood growing up around Islam culture and how that has shaped his perceptions of Africa and black culture.

Tetenda is a sweet girl from Zimbabwe. She is particularly interested in the black pop culture in the USA, stating that it is hugely different from black pop cultures in areas such as Europe and urban parts of Africa. I met her there with a bunch of others at the media event.

Peter is a motivational speaker and attended the media event I went to a couple weeks ago. He is from Zambia and grew up in Lusaka. Currently, he is working in the information technology sector in Boston.

I met Irene at the African media event. She is from Kampala and has worked in telecommunications. She is currently attending Sloan Business School.

Ousman grew up in Banjul City and is PreMed at Northeastern University.

Another student I met at the media event, Dalia was born in Sudan, but has an interesting background growing up in Cairo, Egypt. Currently, she is a student at BU studying architecture and design.

I also met Botlhe at the event “Images of Africa in the Media”. Botlhe is an international student at BU.

I just met Shani today for coffee in Harvard Square. She is from Ethiopia and currently attends Harvard Business School.  My employer suggested I get in touch with her so that I may obtain a better understanding of the HBS culture before applying. Shani is very sweet and ambitious. In fact, the first sentence to one of her application essays was, “I want to start a $100 million dollar company in Ethiopia”. Her connection and devotion to her home country is admirable, and I look forward to seeing how she progresses after graduation.

Today, I went to an event called “Images of Africa in the Media” at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. The event itself was interesting, especially since as a Comparative Media Studies major, my courses rarely touch on Africa and instead focus solely on classical humanities and pop culture in the media. In addition, at the event, I met a couple of interesting students in the Boston area, one of whom is Justin from Ghana. He is a student at the University of Massachusetts and is studying Mass Communication. I’ll include several other students I met in posts following this one.

Justin sitting on a couch before the event

Lena is a down to earth girl. She is also extremely tall, which is amusing somewhat considering the fact she comes from a small country that has historically been pushed around by surrounding countries. Nevertheless, I met her while traveling through Germany and Europe last summer.