Yolisa Nalule: From Uganda to Princeton

When Yolisa Nalule '10 was growing up, the idea of men opening doors for women was a foreign concept. When her mother, a professor in food science, cautioned her against pursuing a career in pharmaceutics, saying, "You know women, they are very weak, and they just can't do those things," she accepted it as truth. When teachers implied that it was okay to fail certain subjects because women were innately incapable of succeeding in those areas, she never thought to question them.

But when Nalule left her home in Kampala, Uganda, at 16 to study in the United States, her perspective changed.

One of only three students in the country to receive a scholarship from the United World College, an international school with 11 campuses across the globe, Nalule spent two years there before heading across the country to begin her freshman year at Princeton. She is the first of her family ever to leave Uganda.

"I never planned on coming to America," Nalule said. "I was going to do the same thing as everyone else. You go to university, you get a job if you're lucky, you get married, have kids ... At home, we're still backwards about a lot of things, and you just don't question it. Gender equality has a long way to go," she said. Nalule added that since moving to the United States, she has started arguing in a way she never did before.

"I ask 'Why? Why can't I do this if he can? Why shouldn't I do that?'" she said. "I question."

When Nalule went home for the first time last December, she said, she no longer accepted the status quo. "I sat my mom down and asked, 'Do you believe it? Don't you feel that if more women were given the opportunity, they could be successful just like you were?' " she said. "But she's lived through a different generation, and you can't really change her mentality. You can hear it in the way she talks."

Nalule described the experience of coming home for the first time as surreal. "It was hard to fit back in," she admitted. "And maybe I don't anymore."

Still, Uganda is home for the aspiring pharmacist, and she hopes to utilize the education she is receiving for the country's benefit.

"Everything is home there — my family, my memories. I feel I can make a difference there," she said. "And I'm using the intelligence and resources here so that I can go back and do something for my country."

Nalule recognizes that her plan is a challenging one. "If you have a choice, people don't like working in Uganda," she said. "Honestly speaking, the working conditions are not good, and the money they give you isn't worth it." Then she added with a laugh: "My parents just tell me, 'Stay there and send us the money!' "

Still, Nalule is optimistic. "We're not a very patriotic place, you know, waving our flags around, but your perspective changes when you're the only one," she said.

"And maybe I won't end up going back to live in Uganda permanently, but somehow, I want to do something to make a difference to my country."