By Jessica Strachan
C&G Newspapers
Lagos is the most populous city in Nigeria and rapidly expanding, but 23-year-old native Azubike Ononye knew his vision and practice as an architect-in-training would be even better if he could see the way worlds were constructed outside of his own.
After earning his undergraduate degree in architecture in Ghana, he made the choice to come to America to attend Lawrence Technological University for his masters in architecture.
“The size of the school was a big deal. I am quite curious; I want to know more. I’m coming from a background that I couldn’t really learn more because I was limited only what my professors knew back in Africa,” Ononye, who graduated in May, said. “LTU is a small school so the professor-to-student relationship is much better than other schools. I can stop the whole class when I have a question.”
Because of his experience at LTU, he even landed a job and is now an architectural intern in Northville while he prepares to take his qualifying exam.
Ononye is one of the 425 students who benefit from LTU’s extensive international program, with around 150 new international students coming for the fall semester, according to the Office of Student Affairs. It’s estimated that close to 50 degree-seeking students at LTU took part in some globetrotting of their own this past academic year, according to Lisa Kujawa, assistant provost for enrollment management.
The school has a heavy interest in international ties with other universities around the globe, and those programs are continually growing.
With one year under his belt, Virinder Moudgil, the university’s seventh president, has continued to strengthen those relationships and forge several new ones since last summer.