Chizoba Ezenwa is a fourth-year International Studies- Africa major at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. She will receive her B.A. with a minor in International Development and Humanitarian Assistance in May 2017. She currently works as a program assistant for the Sahel Research Group (SRG) within the Center for African Studies where her main responsibilities include publishing the weekly Sahel newsletter, maintaining the Sahel Research Group website, and formatting Group publications. Chizoba also took part in the organization of the 2017 Carter Conference titled “On the Edge: What Future for the African Sahel?” alongside SRG faculty and graduate students.
Born in England and raised in a Nigerian family, Chizoba had an early exposure to the global community that encouraged her to travel and pursue International Studies. During middle and high school, she traveled each summer to Nigeria to visit family and later began volunteering at the Anawim Home Rehabilitation Center in the city of Gwagwalada. Her work with the center included collecting data for the HIV/AIDS clinic; assisting the patients with mental disabilities; organizing a school supply drive for the local primary school’s orphaned children; and typing exams for the school’s administration. Following her first year at UF, she spent the summer in the Dominican Republic on a service learning program where she studied Intermediate Spanish while teaching reading skills to the children of child social service organization, Acción Callejera. Post-graduation, Chizoba looks forwards to continuing her desires to serve and to learn about international development and African affairs through the Peace Corps as a Food Security Extension Agent in Benin.