3 WHY DID YOU START THE MT SCHOLARSHIPS?
When I reflect on my entire US/Canada graduate school application process as a Nigerian living in Nigeria, the most difficult part by far was paying for the required standardized tests such as the GRE and the TOEFL, as well as the application fees to schools. Having a high GPA from college, crafting persuasive application letters, and securing credible references (all part of the application requirements for applying to graduate schools) was difficult, but was nothing compared to living in a third world country and trying to pay online for services based in North America. The reasons for this difficulty are many, but two stand out: trust and lack. Take trust. Many merchants, including test makers and universities, are loath to accept a credit card payment from Nigeria. Nigerian scams and the legend of the “Nigerian Prince” are infamous on the internet, even though the reality is that less than one-tenth of one percent of Nigerians engage in these dubious schemes. The more than 99.9% of Nigerians thus face a deficit of trust when dealing online with those outside of the country. For this reason, even those who have money are not able to spend it to move their lives forward. Then, there is the issue of lack. More than half of the population of Nigeria lives in extreme poverty, defined as those living on less than $1.90 a day. It was just yesterday, or so it seems, that I was part of this statistic. And the overwhelming majority that are not technically in extreme poverty are barely scraping by. For many, the cost to apply to North American graduate schools would be the biggest single expense of their lives so far. When I did the math, I calculated that, from kindergarten all the way to finishing college, I spent less than $1,000 total on tuition and fees; whereas, the cost of my tests and application fees alone for graduate school were more than $1,000. In other words, I paid more in months during the application process than in over 16 years of education. I had to rely on a friend of a friend, who also used a friend of a friend, to pay for my tests and application fees. Without this assistance, I wouldn’t have achieved my dream of a North American graduate education – the envy of the world. I am now on a mission to help many navigate these treacherous waters. You can call it paying it forward. This is first reason I started the MT Scholarships. But there is a second, deeper reason at work that has to do with eradicating poverty. Remittances – funds transferred by immigrants to their home country – is a big source of income to the impoverished, propping up the local economies of developing nations. Without this steady injection of funds to the economy, tensions are more likely to flare, leading to more chaos in societies that are already teetering on the edge. Immigrants with advanced degrees end up with well-paying jobs, and the money they send home helps push back the dark clouds of poverty, one money transfer at a time. What’s more, immigrants that go back to their home countries after a graduate education are in a prime position to lead the academia, industry, and government of the countries they come from, helping to shape the policies that will help kill poverty. I am thus very motivated to facilitate the access of these future leaders to the best educational system in the world.