A Journey to a Brighter Future      

     From West Africa’s Nigeria to the plains of Oklahoma, nursing student Jude Ulogo’s determination for higher education is nothing short of awe-inspiring.
     Ulogo’s journey to East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he is studying nursing, was not an easy one. In fact, when Ulogo left Nigeria to come to the United States, he had no plans of becoming a nurse. But when he arrived in Houston, Texas, he learned that the job he had been doing back home, accounting, would be a hard task to continue in the states. Ulogo’s English wasn’t the clearest and U.S. accounting systems different from Nigeria’s immensely. Wondering what he could do to at least get a job, Ulogo gave pharmacy school a try next, but found that the school he was accepted into, Xavier University, was not taking students. Hurricane Katrina had caused major damage to the school, including destroying a quarter million dollar electron microscope, warping the entire gym floor and flooding the dormitories.
     This was but the tip of the ice burg for the disappointments and heartbreaks Ulogo would go through until finally landing in Ada. It has been his determination and unwavering love for his family that has kept him on this pursuit for a better future.        
    “Pharmacy school obviously wasn’t for me after the hurricane,” said Ulogo. “So I decide okay-let me go to nursing school.”
     While nursing school may be a non-traditional career for most men, for an African man like Ulogo, choosing a nursing career was completely in opposition of his culture.
     “In Africa, we have these kind of culture things,” said Ulogo. “They don’t want you to be a nurse as a male person. They feel like doing nursing is for females.”
     According to University of Manchester Professor Shula Marks, many men in Africa are taken by surprise to learn that there have always been men in nursing. In fact, in South Africa, male nurses were the sole caretakers for those working in the mines until women entered the workplace in the 1970’s. However, it seems that nursing is still a heavily gender stereotyped career, and even in the U.S. is still largely considered “women’s work.”
     Despite this cultural bias, Ulogo left Houston and headed north to Oklahoma’s East Central University, but this next move towards education was once again inhibited when his father became terminally ill with diabetes. Ulogo had to return to Nigeria to take care of his father, which was his first hands-on experience as a nurse. There, he helped by bringing and preparing the right foods for his father, and also helped with medication.
     After his father’s funeral, and due to the expenses of his father’s medications, Ulogo moved to Nevada where his wife was living to get a job because he is the “breadwinner” of his family.    
     With no setback being too big for Ulogo to overcome, he returned to East Central University and with the help of former advisors, was able to pick up where he had left off in Nevada. One of those advisors, Louann Evert, is amazed at how far Ulogo has come, and is willing to go, to become a nurse.        
     “Right now, he is fasting for 100 days,” said Evert. “It is his promise to his higher power to help get spiritual strength to be able to make it through school.”    
     Ulogo appreciates the educational opportunity he has found in the United States.    
     “That is why we are here,” said Ugolo about himself and others in similar situations. “To get ourselves more educated, more education, and to be financially okay to take care of our families back home.”