It’s exactly one year since I left the shores of Africa to study in Delft. I may not have seen it all, but I sure have a lot to tell. From the smiling faces of Delft students that gave me an unforgettable welcome at Schiphol, to the grueling hours I spent in half-filled lecture rooms (my previous lecture rooms were usually full to twice their capacity), and the not-so-friendly attitude of Dutch people on the streets of Holland, it’s a mixed story of fulfilled dreams and dangling hopes.
I arrived in Delft with high hopes and lofty expectations; maybe they were just a bit naïve, but now I know better.
The first shock I had was discovering that I was ill-prepared for adapting to the demands of academic life in Delft. I’d hoped that arriving one month ahead of the start of the academic year to participate in the summer school would help to provide sufficient preparation for life as a foreign student. I have since concluded that I was wrong. Compleet vergist. I thought I was the only who got bored after the euphoria of the first two weeks waned in the summer school, but I soon discovered that the same question was on most people’s lips: why in the world is this program for one full month?
We quickly concluded that one or two weeks would have been enough to learn all we had to. But apparently the organizers thought differently. However, I must confess that the friends I made during summer school have been the fastest I’ve had in the past year; all international students like me, even though I’d hoped to befriend more indigenous people.
One of my major motivations for choosing to study in Holland was because I wanted to learn a foreign language: Dutch. It has been more difficult than I ever imagined. It’s not that the language is zeer moeilijk, like I hear most foreigners say, since I have a natural ability for languages anyway, it’s just that the schedule and pressure of work I’ve had to cope with has just been overwhelming. I had planned to follow the honors track before my arrival in Delft. However, a soft-spoken study advisor looked at me in disbelief when I told her of my intention in the first week after lectures began. “You would have to come back with your request after the first quarter,” she told me without mincing words. I have gone back to see her several times after that initial encounter, but I have never talked about following the honors track again.
And then the sustainability hype. It’s the buzzword at TU Delft nowadays. At first I wondered why it had to be ‘with a focus on Africa’. I had followed a course on Product Discovery and Design where I came across the ‘lifestraw’ water bottle, introduced in Ghana by an industrial design student in Delft. I must confess that I was pleasantly amused. What fascinated me the most was the change in focus: making Africans collaborators in the technological innovations being introduced there, instead of just giving them hand-outs. It may be on a small scale now, but it will definitely snowball into some groundbreaking technologies, if the will and persistence is sustained.
Indeed, the concept of wealth at the bottom of the pyramid introduced by Prahalad is a laudable one. I must commend the TU Delft’s foresight in taking this bold step to introduce sustainable technological change in Africa. Indeed, this will also provide a lot of impetus for Africans who come to study here to take up the challenge of devising environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways of bridging the technological divide between Africa and the rest of the world.
After studying for one year in Delft, I have come to a few conclusions about the experiences of Africans here. It’s not necessarily very difficult for Africans to study here. It’s just very different. The more informed they are about the extent of the difference before they begin their studies, the better prepared they will be at coping with the rigors of student life here in Delft. TU Delft’s African Students’ Association is already taking some strides in this regard, by attaching mentors to incoming African students. Our dream is that soon Africans will not only be graduating with honors from the Delft, but they’ll also be contributing significantly to the TU’s vision of creating a sustainable world where opportunities abound for people everywhere to better the quality of their lives through efficient, innovative and low-cost technological designs. The romance may just be beginning, but it will sure flourish like a rose in full bloom . and soon too. Ik vind Nederlanders interessant.
Joseph Isimite, from Nigeria, is a MSc chemical engineering student
(Image: Juan Carlos Ortiz Nicolas/Mexico)
It’s exactly one year since I left the shores of Africa to study in Delft. I may not have seen it all, but I sure have a lot to tell. From the smiling faces of Delft students that gave me an unforgettable welcome at Schiphol, to the grueling hours I spent in half-filled lecture rooms (my previous lecture rooms were usually full to twice their capacity), and the not-so-friendly attitude of Dutch people on the streets of Holland, it’s a mixed story of fulfilled dreams and dangling hopes. I arrived in Delft with high hopes and lofty expectations; maybe they were just a bit naïve, but now I know better.
The first shock I had was discovering that I was ill-prepared for adapting to the demands of academic life in Delft. I’d hoped that arriving one month ahead of the start of the academic year to participate in the summer school would help to provide sufficient preparation for life as a foreign student. I have since concluded that I was wrong. Compleet vergist. I thought I was the only who got bored after the euphoria of the first two weeks waned in the summer school, but I soon discovered that the same question was on most people’s lips: why in the world is this program for one full month?
We quickly concluded that one or two weeks would have been enough to learn all we had to. But apparently the organizers thought differently. However, I must confess that the friends I made during summer school have been the fastest I’ve had in the past year; all international students like me, even though I’d hoped to befriend more indigenous people.
One of my major motivations for choosing to study in Holland was because I wanted to learn a foreign language: Dutch. It has been more difficult than I ever imagined. It’s not that the language is zeer moeilijk, like I hear most foreigners say, since I have a natural ability for languages anyway, it’s just that the schedule and pressure of work I’ve had to cope with has just been overwhelming. I had planned to follow the honors track before my arrival in Delft. However, a soft-spoken study advisor looked at me in disbelief when I told her of my intention in the first week after lectures began. “You would have to come back with your request after the first quarter,” she told me without mincing words. I have gone back to see her several times after that initial encounter, but I have never talked about following the honors track again.
And then the sustainability hype. It’s the buzzword at TU Delft nowadays. At first I wondered why it had to be ‘with a focus on Africa’. I had followed a course on Product Discovery and Design where I came across the ‘lifestraw’ water bottle, introduced in Ghana by an industrial design student in Delft. I must confess that I was pleasantly amused. What fascinated me the most was the change in focus: making Africans collaborators in the technological innovations being introduced there, instead of just giving them hand-outs. It may be on a small scale now, but it will definitely snowball into some groundbreaking technologies, if the will and persistence is sustained.
Indeed, the concept of wealth at the bottom of the pyramid introduced by Prahalad is a laudable one. I must commend the TU Delft’s foresight in taking this bold step to introduce sustainable technological change in Africa. Indeed, this will also provide a lot of impetus for Africans who come to study here to take up the challenge of devising environmentally friendly and socially responsible ways of bridging the technological divide between Africa and the rest of the world.
After studying for one year in Delft, I have come to a few conclusions about the experiences of Africans here. It’s not necessarily very difficult for Africans to study here. It’s just very different. The more informed they are about the extent of the difference before they begin their studies, the better prepared they will be at coping with the rigors of student life here in Delft. TU Delft’s African Students’ Association is already taking some strides in this regard, by attaching mentors to incoming African students. Our dream is that soon Africans will not only be graduating with honors from the Delft, but they’ll also be contributing significantly to the TU’s vision of creating a sustainable world where opportunities abound for people everywhere to better the quality of their lives through efficient, innovative and low-cost technological designs. The romance may just be beginning, but it will sure flourish like a rose in full bloom . and soon too. Ik vind Nederlanders interessant.
Joseph Isimite, from Nigeria, is a MSc chemical engineering student
(Image: Juan Carlos Ortiz Nicolas/Mexico)
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