by Chibozu
8th September, 2009 will always be a memorable day for the students at Northrise University. It was only a day after Northrise University of Ndola, Zambia, had entered into a partnership agreement with Dordt College of Iowa state in America. Accompanied by Mr. Randy Kroll who is the chairman of the Dordt College board, the president of Dordt College, Dr. Carl E. Zylstra, took time to have an interactive meeting with the students.
He shared with the Northrise students exactly what it meant to partner with Northrise. He said he was excited and happy to be part of a partnership that has been guided by God Himself. He also said that the students should be encouraged and always remember that God himself will see them and Northrise through.
Dr. Zylstra also made mention that the partnership with Northrise University is the first partnership made in Africa. And besides Africa, the college is also partnered with some institutes from Korea, Australia and Mexico. As one of the Northrise students who sat in that interactive and educational meeting, I was happy to learn that Dordt College and Northrise have a common area of understanding: Both are Christian institutions and offer quality education.
The partnership programme also includes an exchange programme where students and faculty from Dordt can come to Northrise to study and teach in a semester and vice versa. Through the meeting I also got to learn of a few challenges that students at Dordt face when they study from other partnering institutes. One of these is learning in a foreign language. However, I realised that challenges are always with us and should not be viewed as obstacles but rather as stepping stones to a valuable destination. Partnering with Dordt will be an experience worthwhile because education is a life time experience.