ROCK REPORT
For Freshman, Second Choice is First Rate
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rom performing in a film for the first time to starting a podcast from scratch to jumping at leadership opportunities, freshman Chidera Okafor has embraced what Rockhurst University has to offer. But it could have gone another way — Okafor said she came to Rockhurst to be a nursing student after being waitlisted for medical school at the University of MissouriKansas City. She decided not to wait — instead choosing Rockhurst’s nursing program — but it has been anything but a backup plan.
Chidera Okafor, freshman
“I looked at Rockhurst’s website and saw the values and that it was ‘where leaders learn,’” she said. “I see myself as a leader, so I knew that if I went here, I would become the person I’m called to be.” Okafor said she was involved in a lot of different activities as a high school student. In college, she’s pared that involvement back, choosing instead to focus on those activities she’s passionate about. That includes serving as part of Student Senate and Black Student Union, through both of which she effects positive change on campus. That’s not to say that Okafor isn’t branching out. This year, she was part of a Rockhurst theater program film project, a first. And, spurred by an experience in high school and an internship with a podcast producer, she launched a podcast of her own, called The Chidera Brittney Show, with interviews and topics aimed at helping other young people. “What I’ve realized is that when we think about leaders, we think about older people who already have that influence,” she said. “I want to tell my generation, Generation Z, that we’re all leaders in different ways. It’s all about embracing the power we have.”
HEARD ON CAMPUS “My hope is that as we witness what is happening in Ukraine and the categorical imperative to do something, we will reflect and ask ourselves why we have made it so incredibly difficult for people from south of the border to make an asylum claim.” Ruben Garcia, ’69, who has dedicated his life to working with migrants, immigrants and refugees on the U.S.-Mexico border, during the Visiting Scholar Lecture Series, March 22
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