New Parent Philips Brown shares his experience coming to the American University of Nigeria for the first time during the fall 2021 orientation and pledge ceremony
“If you go to Google, and you want to know the security situation of this country, especially in the north, and see what Google offers as security information, it is so certain that you will never come towards this area from the South. What we hear in the South is that the North-East is a no-go area, and so the decision to bring a child to the North-East is a decision that is faced with fear. It is a decision that every family member will say, 'you are going crazy, that you are putting your life and your child in danger.
“But I know that to succeed in life, there is time to take a calculated risk. So, I made the decision, took the calculated risk. It is my calculated risk to be here.
“I have heard of AUN before now, but I have never had it as an option. I had in mind that my children would go out of the country, and my daughter's plans had been made. My daughter told me that she did not want to go out of the country, that she wanted to go to AUN. I asked why she said she could not cope outside the country. I asked her, ‘What makes you think you can cope in AUN?’ She said she had done her virtual research and was excited. AUN had sent a team to Rivers state, to Port Harcourt, and this team went round to some selected secondary schools for their presentation. I did not know that they had done a presentation in my daughter's school, and that was where every decision to come to AUN concluded.
“Coming to AUN opened my eyes further to a different culture than I had expected. My daughter and I arrived late at night by 11 pm because our flight was delayed on Thursday. To my greatest surprise, I saw young men in T-shirts with AUN written on them. I wondered what these young men were doing by this time, and I was told that they were volunteer students helping with welcoming new students and their parents.
“For me, this goes beyond community service; it is about building character; it is about building people to become leaders of tomorrow with full responsibility in society. And you know, they were very helpful, they were ready to carry our luggage and trust me, my daughter carried three large boxes, and I discovered these young men carried it with excitement, and I said WOW!
“Coming into a learning community like this--and we got here around 10 am the next day--I was conscious of everything. I discovered that this is not your regular Nigerian University; it is a community that I believe my daughter will fit in and she will do well. Today, we have done a few activities by parents and students, and I could not believe that we have a university in our country with this high level of organization, this quality of top-notch facilities, and international standards.
“We are not just in a peaceful place but a peaceful university community, far more than even in the South. So my decision to be here, I have since concluded, is a wise decision and a very long-term decision with long-term goals for myself, my family, and my daughter. In five years, after my daughter, who is studying petrochemical engineering, graduates, I will tell my cousin (whose son ought to be here and changed to another university) that he has made a terrible mistake.”