Bio: Chiunde Mwanza

Davis United World College Scholar
Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa (Swaziland)

I was born in Lusaka, Zambia on  September 9th, 1989. Since my mother and father are Zambian, I am a Zambian citizen. However, when I was about one year old, my family moved to Swaziland. It is this relocation that has given me the opportunity to attend Lewis & Clark College. In Swaziland with my two younger sisters, I attended a local primary school before going to Waterford Kamhlaba UWCSA for high school.  At first the reason for choosing Waterford Kamhlaba as my high school was the high quality education that it offered and the fact that most of my friends from primary school were also going there. Then as I completed the IGCSE program and thought about applying for the IB program at the same institution, other reasons started to develop in my mind. The first of these was the diverse culture I had taken for granted at Waterford, which, in retrospect, I feel is what molded me into the person that I am.

Another thing that has shaped me into the person I am is sports. From a young
age I have taken a keen liking to sports – both watching and playing them. On
the sports field I must put aside any differences that I have with my fellow
peers and work in concurrence with them. Teamwork is a necessary quality in
today’s world and having learned and developed this quality from a young age, I
feel that I am ready for the “world out there.” I have been overseas before,
however I was young, and so moving to Portland to attend Lewis & Clark is my
first taste of the “world out there.” I hope that I’m well prepared for a new
environment, and I can’t wait to meet people of different cultures as I have
done in the past at Waterford.

In terms of academics, I am interested in subjects that require problem solving
– namely physics, computers and mathematics, and therefore I would like to
study engineering. During the IB program in high school, I very much supported
the idea of diversity, and when it came time to choose a college, I sought this
quality. I am very glad to be attending Lewis & Clark because of the tremendous
cultural diversity among its students. Lewis & Clark’s size was a also a
determining factor because I believe that for us to make an impact on the world
at large, we must first make an impact on a small community – and I believe that
I will make a positive effect on Lewis & Clark, and vice versa.

After getting an education at Lewis & Clark I want to embark on a ”˜giving back’
project. I hope to return to Africa where I will work and share all that I have
learned with my African community.