University of Livingstonia alumni Nelson Nkhoma and Majory Silisyene talk to the Centralia Rotary Club about how the university in Malawi Africa has helped them on Tuesday. Both attended Livingstonia at different times and met at the University of Minnesota where they fell in love.
For over a decade, the Centralia Rotary Club, Centralia College and numerous members of the community have been involved with establishing and helping the University of Livingstonia in Malawi, Africa.
The university offers a wide range of degrees, from technology and science to education and theology.
On Tuesday, two graduates of the university paid a visit to the Centralia Rotary Club to share their experiences.
Majory Silisyene was born in Zambia and relocated to Tanzania, Africa. She received her bachelor's degree from Livingstonia in wildlife management. She continued her education at the University of Minnesota, where she recently graduated from with a doctorate in environmental science.
Nelson Nkhoma was raised in Malawi and graduated from Livingstonia in 2007 as part of the first class the university had with a degree in education. He was pursuing a doctorate at the University of Minnesota. In his last semester there, he met Silisyene in class. The pair fell in love and were married last year.
The pair grew up about 500 miles apart and met halfway around the world, Hank Kirk said. Kirk is a former president of Centralia College and, along with his wife, Jenny, helped to found the University of Livingstonia.
The Rotary Club helped build the school and has invested a lot in it, he said. Being able to see the success of these two students is a return on that investment.
Nkhoma has visited Centralia in the past; this is the first visit for Silisyene.
Right now, Nkhoma is working at the University of the Free State in South Africa working to help teachers provide a new curriculum.
“It is the background from where I come from,” he said about his career path.
His father and sister are teachers as well.
Silisyene focused on studying the impacts regulatory policies have on the environment such as the effectiveness land easements have on wildlife.
“I care about the environment,” she said.
The couple will return to South Africa to start their lives together but neither have a solid picture of where they will go next.
Hank and Jenny Kirk, along with their family, attended Silisyene and Nkhoma’s wedding in Malawi last year. Nkhoma was in the United States to celebrate his wife’s graduation in April, so the couple decided to stick around for another month and visit the Twin Cities.
Jenny Kirk said the wedding was a combination of western wedding traditions and local traditions. For example, the bride wore a white flowing dress and the groom wore a black tuxedo. But the wedding party danced down the aisle while a choir sang African songs.
Nkhoma had to slowly lift the veil over Silisyene’s face and declare she was the one he wanted to marry, Jenny Kirk said.
Since opening in 2003, the University of Livingstonia has grown to over 300 students and has two campuses. The Kirks have been involved in it since its beginning and have worked to help build a partnership between it and Centralia College as well as the Rotary Club.
The college provides computers to the university that are no longer useable here but are perfect to teach the basics in the developing nation of Malawi. The Rotary Club works to raise funds to help support the university’s water supply among other things. They also work to help other communities in the region.
“It has been a big project of the Rotary,” Hank Kirk said. “This has been a big project of the Twin Cities to help Africa.”
