David Wandawa’s mom and dad went to Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary respectively. But while the campus was familiar to them, for David it was a world away—literally 7,600 miles from his hometown of Kampala, Uganda.
While Wandawa had already decided to attend Calvin this fall, the $4,000 renewable scholarship he’d receive by completing the Entrada Scholars Program was the impetus for him looking into leaving his hometown to head to the United States six weeks earlier than he originally planned.
“I heard more about it [Entrada] and how it was aimed toward minorities, people like me, so I thought it was a good chance to make some friendships even before the semester starts, so you know some people, have some connections by the time fall comes. And that was what I was looking forward to.”
How has your view of college changed since attending Entrada?
Entrada has really helped. I was nervous about college. It’s been, of course more challenging than high school, but I would say I have more a feel of the rhythm. One thing I was not used to are the really long readings you do to prepare for the class, which sort of shocked me. We hadn’t met the prof yet and had 60 pages to read.
But now I’m used to it, I know the groove of college. You do your readings and you’ll be able to understand what’s going on in class. We have reading responses for all the readings we do which really helps. The questions you answer really help you internalize what you learn. When you write down from your own thoughts, you really remember it. You don’t have to cram this or that, you have it in your mind.
What is your greatest takeaway from this experience?
The community. There’s a real sense of community here. In talking with some of my friends the other day, I recalled coming here knowing no one, and now we’ve been together for a couple of weeks, and it feels like we’ve been friends forever. Everyone’s so nice, gets along well. It’s really easy to go and talk to someone. There’s just a sense of community and closeness here and I didn’t expect that at all.
How have the profs been?
I was surprised how approachable the profs were. I always thought of profs as the big bad professors. But they’re just normal people, really easy to setup a meeting with, really approachable. The prof I had, he clearly loves what he teaches and in that sense it’s interesting. He tries to make it engaging. He’s really understanding if we don’t get it. He’s like ‘it’s okay, happy to explain a second, third, or fourth time.’ So, my biggest takeaway is profs are very welcoming.
Because of Entrada, I feel more confident in …
My time management. Entrada has helped me with time management because you are juggling lessons, readings, reading responses, studying for the test coming up, and also other aspects. I want to play sports with friends, go to the pool, play basketball. So now being able to manage my time so that if I want to do these activities, I know I need to get my work done early. Entrada helped me to plan the day out much better and stay on task. I know I need to have good time management to have good balance between work and play.
How would you have felt had you not had this experience before college?
I would have been much more scared, scared about university, how tough it would be, what profs would be like, but also the aspect of worried about whether I’d be able to make friends, wondering will I fit in? But Entrada’s helped with all of these aspects. I recommend it for anyone as you’ll feel much more confident coming into Calvin. Been here for only a few weeks, but already know the place a lot. I feel much more familiar with it.
Anything else to share?
It gives a seamless transition between high school and university going through Entrada, so I’d recommend to anyone.
