Fan Faces
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Fan Faces
Navigating Pathways to Success: Mohamed Bangura's Journey from Sierra Leone to the Rochester Institute of Technology
Imagine embarking on a journey from Sierra Leone to the United States, facing immense cultural and linguistic barriers, yet persistently pursuing academic opportunities and success. This is the powerful story of Mohamed Bangura, a determined student from Sierra Leone, currently studying at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Mohamed's passion for learning led him to navigate the cultural, educational, and economic differences between Sierra Leone and the States, using the internet as a fundamental tool for accessing opportunities and forging his pathway out of his home country. Listen as he shares insightful nuggets on the importance of hard work, initiative, and networking in achieving one's goals.
Delving into the substance of his journey, Mohamed discusses the critical aspects of hard work and initiative in chasing success. From securing scholarships to investing in internet access, he highlights his relentless pursuit of opportunities, underlining that success is primarily rooted in individual efforts. In his experience as an international student, he imparts invaluable lessons on bridging cultural and linguistic gaps, the primacy of planning for success, and leveraging education to unlock broader opportunities. This episode is a treasure trove of inspiration and motivation, reminding us of the transformative power of determination and the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Tune in to learn lessons from Mohamed's journey and his profound insights on education, hard work, and the pursuit of opportunities.
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Alright, guys, welcome to a special, special episode of Fan Faces. We're not dipping into the sports today. Today it's a human culture episode, a human problem, really, for everybody that's in the developing world. But today we have somebody here by the name of Muhammad Muhammad Bangura, and Muhammad, please tell the people out there about yourself. Yes, so I am.
Speaker 2:Muhammad Bangura. I think on all my socials I am MI Bangura. I come from second-hand itself Speak close, speak close. Yes, I am. I would like to describe myself. I think I'm generally interested in education. I'm currently I'm publishing my page at the Ata Ahrite here in Manchester.
Speaker 1:For those of you that don't know, that's a Rochester Institute of Technology. It's one of the biggest universities, biggest private universities in the world and it's world-renowned. And this guy happens to just land there. Is it by luck or is it by skill? Well, find out. Let's keep it going Sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so probably, as we continue, you'll get to know I would probably get to see more about myself, I think. In short, muhammad from Sierra Leone, and I am into education.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so Michael starts now the you know the small area. Then first, who's here, where you came from America.
Speaker 2:I came here last year August.
Speaker 1:So from all the countries that we don't travel, where you came from, america. What's the difference?
Speaker 2:I think you know, if one of the US, I think I'd compare the first countries where I traveled to Okay yeah, everything pretty much is similar. I think the main difference here, not that system they almost all tend to they will copulate.
Speaker 1:So Mauritius, who's that Mauritius state?
Speaker 2:Mauritius is not Indian, it's in Africa, okay.
Speaker 1:Mauritius is in Africa. Mauritius reminds me of America. Remember, people are not swinging on trees, people not living in the jungle. Mauritius is a developed country for the most part, but continue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, sure, yeah. So I think that that's not the first part where we will compare these very, very specific or unique US like systems and things that you put your light on in the you internet. You wake up in the, you know they wake up to surprises, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's good, you know we all get the opportunity. Then they will survive. You go really Well the way you first come to America. The first thing you'll notice while you first come to America, while you're young, you're left alone 1997.
Speaker 2:1997 1997.
Speaker 1:Now come to America. I've been so young I've come to America I'd expect to see all the motocadden. They're supposed to pull smoke in normal. For me, motocaddy pull smoke, motocaddy pull smoke, that's not normal. But as I go older and I realize motocaddy pull smoke is because something wrong with them. No, no, do the proper maintenance plan. So I'd say that they first segue into this.
Speaker 1:For the people that are waiting in the salon, the way they sit down and say salon had the country, the country, the country, you know they go before, that's true, not to just salon had all some of the wall had, it's just that salon now gets a safety net. And I say you know, get the safety net. If you know, then say the price of rest, they go up. If you go up to a million, none of the adjust the wages for balance down there. Then just they say Padimanadis, we get for you no more, this is all we have for you and you will have to learn to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Whereas in America they do a wage adjustment we now eat a yali then gets the wages they're within the guinna workway, separates from the wage adjustment, but yali then they do an assessment of the environment, the economy, suicide, and go able adjust for people then for make them be sufficient. And so we go jump into the educational realm as well. Mohammed Bangura, fenway for Kovona, salon and Kala in America, not through God, sure, not through magic, some can say, but mostly not through hard work. And make sure, say from your understanding, from the background conversations, the way we don't get, and make sure say who said and say when or day and make sure say where day. So tell me you first entanglement with trying for Fenway for move yourself further out of Salon.
Speaker 2:Out of Salon. Yeah, it starts, I think, in 2014, when we get Ebola, so just before 2014,. That is like 2012. I mean, they are out of school for like AOL Academy here, wow, and then that was cool for all that story for another day. So I come back and I'm in for repeats Let me class. I'm in for repeats me class, I repeats me class, and then from there, when I come back, I'm gonna get an extra drive to make sure I do what I do Because I'm supporting my family and so I'm in for put extra work. So I put extra work. We put me at the position where I am now.
Speaker 2:I tell Prince of Wales, actually the best school you can attend the best school if the sense now they didn't know and then they are like Prince of Wales together, like a rewarding system when you do well, they make you a school prefect and you school to that time you get for being involved in extra. So when so I get for can be conscious about the internet specifically that, oh, you could actually find communities on and the first opportunity we make a big, we do a more closer to like opportunities abroad. Now we are going to Google. It was just like. It was just like a webinar where you talk about setting empowerment so by the first forward now when I write me my work.
Speaker 1:and then there was Ebola, there was cooling, so I was just like searching online for schools, looking for yeah, just like that, not just say God day, god will come, but go, look, go, take the opportunity, take out by the hand. Yeah, take out, make you go, make you go sound as opposed to go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'm one of the study civil engineering. So the first school I remember I applied to Florida Institute of Right. I was applying for a civil engineering program. They show you the price. You hate shake. I don't even know about the price. If I apply then we'll take me and things like that on my phone and get one motor online. Yeah, they apply and then I see me get it done fast. So we wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We can go to internet kaffe, so get our money for two days. Internet kaffe. Spent two hours print almost all the documental for prints, like we can read about the thing.
Speaker 1:Okay. So what you, they say, is you, you and you, adventure and go out and fend and attack and pull and bring to you, not just sit down there and wait. Say something you can't for me, not just sit down there and wait. Say somebody go, do for me, make a go, and then and and then and adventure into this different, unknown world of mine and and and get information where I feel say it's necessary for me to do it and it for do so. I say that I go add me own small thing.
Speaker 1:If you get something planned by your mind, right, yeah, even if you don't know how to do it. Yeah, you go fend where for one. Yes, so you part the education, but me part different avenues. Them I get, I don't see that they don't come to fruition. On many occasions I have something planned in my mind, I see it in my mind's eye and then I go about doing it and some way, somehow I figure it out and I don't know how, come off on a, but I land NZ, and while I land NZ I know I have accomplished the goal, no matter how big or small. I know I have accomplished, but I continue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, you're very right on that. So first forward a friend. We sorry a friend with me. Don't go to South Africa, see this university, just like we say random links. See, man, you I know, see that, apply and for apply for this one okay right.
Speaker 2:So we say I apply for this one and then I start for apply and then I forget about the, the, the, the other one, because they ask me for document. They don't even understand you understand. So I be applied for this other one and this other one. They will application me very lengthy. They mean need for right, like so many essays then about. You say literally I will write everything. Now it's spending people. When I then I type on my phone like I type on my phone like text, and then when I go because the internet can feel the internet slow, I delay it.
Speaker 2:The internet is a slow right so if you buy one hour right and you have a good type is written that one hour, you money only done. Yeah, so at the time when I'm in front of text, when I reach, I that text, I send an email, or so when I reach, I take them from email, put on a word document and the computer the entire forpload so many essays then. So like in I never like three months or so and finally I go to the next stage. Obviously it was a very new school actually. And then I go to the next stage and then I realize now that this was actually like, like a reality. You could actually get like a scholarship. And then in that process, the I'm already applying to FBC.
Speaker 1:Okay, because school me down, the between them don't be in school you want for you want to put all your caps, then we'll sign you for. Put yeah, nothing all of you make sense once we jump to FBC.
Speaker 2:Well, once FBC opening, then I start for a 10. He give me the zeal for apply for more school. Right, because, yeah, because generally I'm here, I'm getting like like a good result, some expective. I go for a big college and I struggle a lot but realize that you go every day me for print 50 documents, 50 pages like pamphlet. It's like you need for back five. You need for back five like you the chest, you just so many things, them just for these grades. I was like no, I need for this. So fast forward. I completed application and I got like admission.
Speaker 2:So some funny thing, I put around the time when I get the admin me phone, one middle use in the umpire, right. So I tell a friend, say if I can put me sim card my phone, you know, then to sim phone type, I put me sim card my phone anyone for commutes daddy the morning. So you see my levy me phone with you. Okay, so sad ago, the might that about play that thing. Yeah, I, and by then I think I didn't meet some some details them I don't make before they pay for the internet, like we have the reason. And so I went to like a. This woman want me to put some of it to admit. Well, like I can go use internet night office. Okay, so in the opening you can see in cafe like like internet cafe and was like you have a car, help me walk us them. Just maybe in the morning you can open back back things like that it was not but you need to write, so I stopped.
Speaker 2:Paying for internet is essentially yeah, you find a way for make things that happen?
Speaker 2:yeah so the morning I just they open the internet cafe and then I see the foreign number, the call you phone. They ask is this mohael bangora? I said yes, blah blah blah. You say, oh you, you, you've been selected for. So for this award, blah blah blah. I I literally feel, see, like nothing like I, like I, like I will need for pay. Don't stop, I've seen, I just admission. But actually the award sponsor, like for me undergrad, for it's like 40,000 from your undergrad way so fast forward.
Speaker 2:That opportunity make me for left salon so when I left the first time your first time right. So I left salon, did my undergrad and then I went back, worked for like a year and I saw that I needed to leave again right, and then I left again for one day for my master's, and then I was then in wonder now, and then I saw this a lot of opportunity to continue my studies, like yeah well, that's wonderful is yes, god exists.
Speaker 1:Yes, people will help you, but when they help you, you need to also make sure that you're driven enough for you to do the nest. Take the necessary steps, whether it's writing an essay, whether it's getting getting somebody's phone that let you use your phone. Whatever it is you have to do to get to the goals that you want to. You need to take those necessary steps, and some of the people in the develop, in the developing world, find it very difficult. If they don't give me, I'm not going to do anything. There's nothing I can do.
Speaker 1:Some situations, that's true, but some situations it's not. You have to be willing to work. That's for everybody, everywhere. You cannot just land in America and expect that you're going to be rich or expect that you're going to make. You're going to have a job. You have to have a resume, a CV. You have to go for an interview and you have to do well at that interview because it's competitive. You will not be the only person interviewing for that job and you have to, once you get the job, maintain yourself as a professional and do what's asked of you show up on time, do your job, ask questions. If you don't understand, ask again.
Speaker 1:And if you are not willing to do any of those things, success will not follow you. Success comes to those who are willing to work hard. You may be unlucky, you may strike out a hundred times, but 101 time when you hit, that's all that counts. Nobody will ever know that you struck out a hundred times. They'll only know that, wow, look at where he's at now. Wow, look at what he or she is doing now. Look at where they, where they've gone. So to come from Sierra Leone to Mauritius, to Rwanda, and is there another place in between?
Speaker 2:No, I think directs like places where I've stayed for at least a year. Yeah, those are the countries.
Speaker 1:So Sierra Leone, Mauritius, Rwanda, to Rochester, New York, which is in America. When they say America, America is a big place, but Rochester, New York, he's in New York City. Well, he's a New York state and it's cold over here, but he's adjusting. You've only been here since August and you're wearing a sweater. It's a cold day today. Yeah, no, last August.
Speaker 2:Okay, last August, so I've spent one winter here.
Speaker 1:Winter's not as bad as they used to be. There was a time when October there's snow, september, october, november, december, january snow, and then January, february, march, march. It ends, but you have your last snowstorm that you know it's a goodbye snowstorm, but so what are some of your struggles when you went to these places? What were some of the things that you found difficult once you got there?
Speaker 2:I think, from Mauritius, right. So like, for example, nobody believed that very real, that I was actually living on a free ride, Like even my flight, everything was covered. So to convince people, like, whether it's your family members, your pastor at the church, everyone I tell them that they ask you like are you sure about this? You know my? Did you do a video call? No, no, my uncle actually. He confessed like, yeah, when I went for my break it was like, you know, I believed in you, but I was not very sure that this thing was very real until when you arrived and called me with a foreign number, a foreign area code, yeah, right. So I think the future challenges that I had in the case of Mauritius, of course, the language barrier. What language do they speak in Mauritius? They speak Creole. It's like a local dialect, it's like French, but just like our Creole, it's like broken French, english or whatever. Right?
Speaker 2:yeah so the language, the food was very, very different. Like entirely different from what you can imagine.
Speaker 1:No Russian plasas.
Speaker 2:Nothing like that. No, gary, nothing like that. Yeah, so I mean, it was my first time to even what about coffee and bread? Of course, that's how I knew. Yeah, so, and the time difference and all of the stuff, it was the first time I traveled, that it was the first time I saw a plane, so everything was new.
Speaker 2:Everything was new. So just to cope with those, yeah, but I think, other than that, the rest, whether it's Rwanda or the US, is very smooth, because by then I had learned that I did not need to talk to anyone to go and buy it, to do anything, you understand yeah.
Speaker 1:So how long did you spend in Rwanda? How long were you there? For a year, okay, and Mauritius, mauritius, for like four years spilling to him, okay, yeah, oh, did you leave a baby in Mauritius? No, no, no, no, no, I did not. Yeah, okay, yeah, I mean. So, with your scholarship now here, is there a possibility that, like, after you've done learning, you have to go back?
Speaker 2:No, I have no. There's no, nothing like that, but of course I'm on F1. If I'm able to convert it to, I can see that there's nothing.
Speaker 1:You definitely. Can you find yourself a woman while you're in town. It's the best way, right. Find yourself somebody to marry you. No, I do have a woman.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're on your way. Yeah no, I have a woman from Sierra Leone. Well, you need a woman here.
Speaker 1:You need a woman in America so you could convert your F1 into a permanent thing.
Speaker 2:Well.
Speaker 1:I'm looking at a lot of things, or with what you do, whatever job you get, they can sponsor you. But that's a long path. So if you're looking into an opportunity like that, they're hard to come by, but you're in the right environment. You see a lot of people every day. I mean, maybe Are you on campus every day? No, no, no.
Speaker 2:I do not work from campus. I've had it a few times.
Speaker 1:Well, that's what you need to be to convert that F1.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, it's a five-year program. Maybe it will speed up to six, but I know by then I mean my second year now. By then I will have learned about that.
Speaker 1:Well, you have resources, I'm always here, I'm not in college.
Speaker 1:Like you, I intend to go back to school. I myself, I work in a medical field. I work in cytology. We do cancer studies for people that have a lot going on in their life Medically, with the growths in their lungs, tumors and all that stuff. So that's what I do.
Speaker 1:But there's plenty of ways out there people for you to develop your life if you wish. And, being in Sierra Leone, for you to just sit there and be like I want to travel, it's not a reality. You have to have some kind of a qualifications. Whether it's educational, whether it's a trade, you have to do something. So if it's educational route we've talked about the educational route and there's plenty of opportunities out there you just have to apply yourself. And if it's educational route the medical route, the engineering route, those are. And computer science routes If you're into that, it goes a long way, because those are the things qualifications that they're looking for for people to come overseas. And if you have those qualifications, they help your tongue.
Speaker 1:But for you to sit there and be like I want to go overseas, what are your plans? Or you contact to somebody saying you have anything there that I could come for, we can't, they can't train you, they can't bring you here. You have to have a skill. You have to be marketable. What is it that you're good at that? You're so good at that nobody else could do better than you. Education is A1. There's a lot of smart people in Sierra Leone. But being smart alone does not help you. You need to also be resourceful.
Speaker 2:And, if I can comment on that, I think you do not necessarily have to have the best grades Because my, my, my, my work results. It was not the best. I got like six Bs Because I did science. I got like Bs my science is not easy.
Speaker 1:They understand that, so Bs are good.
Speaker 2:So you do not have to have like the perfect grades. You know what I mean If you're a history major and you have Bs.
Speaker 1:They're not taking you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and you do not have, and I think the education route is probably the simplest, like in my, because most of the schools they do have, like like, a quota for international. And when you come from a country like Sierra Leone and then you are competing with people from Nigeria, ghana, where if two Sierra Leones are applying, maybe two or two thousand people are applying from Nigeria, like some of these admission committees, they can actually see that, oh, we want to be diverse. We want to say, oh, we've had 10 more counties in our studentship, so you actually stand like the like a better chance to get this opportunity.
Speaker 1:So if you're a Sierra Leonean out there and you want to do the educational route, like Mohammed is saying, apply yourself. When you apply yourself, do not be shy, but hopefully you have decent grades. You don't have to be world class, but decent enough to the point where they take you to the school and you could actually learn and you don't come across as this is hard. Yeah, because it's not easy anywhere to learn. But you have to be willing to learn. You have to set your mindset. You get from makeup your mind, say I want for long and I did so. I want for success and if not done, they be the case and will take you long way. So keep that in mind, all right, anything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean specifically to me, salon for family, like for me, I think the only thing where I can talk to now the educate of course other people are out, sure the education route. If you plan for left Salon to educate, right, which I would say really good, because some of we, by the grace of God, we get for go back, for go ahead of the road.
Speaker 1:We develop.
Speaker 2:Yeah for go develop. And if you don't see you have to travel to education. Make sure safe you don't see to wire cry to watch. Make sure you get your result. So people would check them, they would trace them Right. If you go to college or you don't get it from college, make sure you get your transcript. If like it all you need for doing, have a just try for identify what you plan for study and find university them with the offer that and even most of the university. Then, if not for the US for example, again they get to say and call admission fees right.
Speaker 2:You don't necessarily need for, pay that fees Literally. I don't do this for so many people. You just write to the, to the, to the admission team, and say, hey, I'm applying, but right now I'm not able for a for the fees because of me. For that situation, then the way for you. You understand all you need. You always want to get something with. You look forward to for. Say, okay, I don't put two to the application and make a with for and for sure, we're waiting there. You don't need any suburb from anybody for for, for for study.
Speaker 1:Bottom line. Be resourceful, get, make sure you have all your documents intact your visa, I mean your passport intact. Make sure you have a passport. Make sure you have all your papers that say what you've learned. It's actually there's actual, there's an actual correlation. But get all together and make yourself an impactful candidate. Make yourself a very strong candidate. The way to make yourself a strong candidate is getting all the documents necessary that you need to have. Apply and be ready when the opportunity arises. If you're not ready when the opportunity arises and you're going to try to bribe 10,000 people, it won't work. So be ready for opportunity when opportunity knocks. Have your documents ready. Have your school records ready. Have your traveling records ready, your traveling documents ready.
Speaker 1:You don't necessarily have to start applying to American universities. You could start in the African continent of Africa, just so that you get the experience and and you see if there's an opportunity for you to get out. Because once you get out, it's a beginning yeah, it's a beginning for you to go find greater and greater pasture baby, end up in America and then go back to Sierra Leone and let them know that it is possible for you. You're not the exception, you are the rule. It's a new thing, but everybody can do it. So, if the education route is what you want to take, there's plenty of opportunities and I will make sure to get more Ahmed's information and put them all in the description on the podcast and on the video on YouTube when I post it, to make sure that you guys, you know if you have questions, you can contact him or you could contact me and we can get the questions to him and maybe he could possibly be able to answer to you.
Speaker 1:You know, you don't need an agency to be able to travel abroad. You just need the willingness and the mental toughness, because it's gonna be a lot of times when you know things not going exactly as you think they should, and If they don't, don't give up. Yeah, keep working, sure, and someday you find yourself where you need to be or where you were meant to be, maybe to America, maybe it's Europe, maybe it's in the continent of Africa itself, but you're in a better off place than you started out. So our fan faces. You got anything else to say?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, well, no, I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're resort your resource to everybody that wants to do something. But, yeah, never Sold opportunity or never felt that they could. It's possible, yeah, and it's definitely possible. As you can see, the guy made it from Africa to America Not directly, but indirectly took the steps necessary. So if he can do it, you can do it. Keep that in mind. Of course he's a he's a genius, I'm sure. Oh, no, he's a hard worker. Yeah, he's a hard worker, yeah yeah, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 1:If you're willing to work hard, you too could be in this position, and you could be looking for a mainstay in America, or mainstay in Rwanda, or mainstay in Mauritius, mainstay in England, the mainstay in France or Russia or Germany. Wherever the good Lord lands you or leads you, all right anything else.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's all from for now, and thank you so much again For having.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. I'm at what today's episode. I can't forget to thank our sponsors. Mainly final cuts. Media find us on Facebook, instagram, youtube and Tiktok. We're all over. We talk sports, but every now and then we need to feed the people. So this is an opportunity. Opportunity to feed the people. So then, I'm glad we Are able to make it happen. And also, 19 strings for the harp Andrews book is on Amazon. Go check it out. Great writer, support the cause and if you want a fan faces hoodie, they're available for order. They look good on me. They could also look good on you. Thank you for the support. Thank you everybody everywhere that's listening. We appreciate you. We can't wait for you to come back for our next feed the soul segment. We continue to feed you. So thank you and have a nice day.
Speaker 2:You.
