Tunji Adesesan:
the cultural guru
Try to imagine you are entering a school where you don’t know anyone. How would you feel? Where would you turn for help? If English isn’t your first language or you have a disability that can cause difficulty in immersing yourself in the academic environment, you need someone to help you adapt and help you succeed in this new and difficult environment.
Reinhardt University provides a faculty member who does just that. His name is Tunji Adesesan, Director of the Academic Supprt Office, and he has made it his mission to bring cultural awareness to the Reinhardt community. Tunji has personal experience in adapting to new surroundings and has helped others do the same with the utmost enthusiasm.
Although journalism rules advise that I should refer to him by his last name, he is recognized across campus only by one name: Tunji. Tunji became who he is today because of his experiences, which began with his place of origin. Tunji is from Ibadan, Nigeria, which is in the western part of Africa. He grew up in the city and lived in a middle class family.
Tunji compares his homeland to our American culture. Just like in the Western world, Nigerian cities have roads and electricity. However, he notes, “There are some luxuries you have in the Western world that we don’t have access to in Nigeria. We do a lot of walking around. Not much of driving around, because everywhere you go you have to walk.” He recounts how, in Nigeria, people must walk to get groceries
and to work. "You don’t see many cars in a Nigerian city,, and you have to pay to ride even the school bus.”
However, unlike in the U.S., even in Nigerian cities, people raise farm animals in their resi-dences. The school Tunji attended started at eight o’clock, so he had to wake up at five a.m. to begin his 20-kilometer (12.4 mile) trek. He remembers that when he woke up, the roosters were like an alarm clock. The roosters would crow, wake the family up, and everyone would get ready for the day.
Tunji gained experience with cultural diver-sity when he immigrated to America in 2001.
Tunji with his wife
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By Brandon Ampel
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