[00:00:00] Hey everyone. This is Lynn Vartan and you're listening to the apex hour. KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. In this show you get more personal time with the guests who visit Southern Utah University from all over. Learning more about their stories and opinions beyond their presentation stage. We will also give you some new music and hope to turn you on abused them and genres. You can find us here every Thursday at 3pm or on the web at suu.edu/apex. But for now welcome to this week's show here on thunder ninety one. Point one.
[00:00:45] Right. Well welcome back everyone. Welcome to the apex hour. It is homecoming week here at Southern Utah University and we are so excited to be broadcasting this week and sharing our homecoming events with you. This is the second year in a row we have done an alumni spotlight for Apex events. And what that means is we have some outstanding alumni here from you. And sometimes we get to invite them back to campus to give a presentation. And so today we are so happy to have Mvemba Dizolele here with us who was a student here at Southern Utah University and is now doing all kinds of amazing things. So welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. I'm so happy to have you here. And your talk was so well attended today it was. You're famous here and I mean I could definitely read about your bio but what I'd love to start is just kind of talking about the things that you've done since you left. As you I know currently you're teaching at Johns Hopkins University. And so how did you go from Southern Utah University to where you are right now. Give us a little bit of an insight to your path.
[00:02:02] All right. Thank you very much Lynn. It's a pleasure to be back in Cedar City as you this is home to me and by way of where I've been. I graduated here. Like most students I do want to go to graduate school and I chose the University of Chicago which was a change from Cedar city. Oh yeah that's a high level of intensity. It's south side of Chicago. Both academically very highly rated but also inner city. It's a different pace of life. There's violence is the urban trepidation and everything else. I studied international policy got a degree in public policy but international policy. And while I was there I took the time to be an intern the Voice of America. So I did something similar to this. I was actually an international broadcaster not a time.
[00:02:56] I could take some lessons.
[00:02:58] No not at all. I read the news in French. I was called a friend service to Africa. So I did a lot of newsmaker interviews. Well sort of a few affiliations. In those days. You know media and politics have started being liberalized the political space was opening up across the world with the collapse of the Berlin Wall the many things that were changing. Right. So part of my job besides doing the news was also to build relationship partnerships with various radio stations around the world particularly in Africa. So created new partnerships in South Africa in Sierra Leone and Liberia in the DRC the Democratic Republic of Congo and so on came back to school graduated went back to D.C. and then I worked in a couple places I worked for the State Department doing interpreting which was interesting because interpreting itself. You know people say you're just going from one language to another but you actually find yourself in the midst of very important discussions like everything that is policy whether it's politics or environmental protection whether it's defense where it's anti terrorism. So I end up to end up doing a lot of things that I didn't even know existed before I end up in Pittsburgh and learn about the Cuyahoga River cutting fire on the old days when you know you think of Pittsburgh just another city with Heinz tomato sauce or something. It turns out Pittsburgh has been a leader in the environmental cleanup.
[00:04:31] I Didn't know that.
[00:04:32] There was a time when in Pittsburgh people used to take two or three shirts to work because you were your white shirt in the morning by noon. The shirt was all dark with all the soot and stuff but they did tremendous work. So it's it's it's an example people come from around the world to go see what they can learn from Pittsburgh.
[00:04:49] I had no idea. That's fascinating.
[00:04:51] So did that. And then after a while I left I went to work in the international finance world. I speak Norwegian. I had lived in Norway went school in Norway so I was hired for by a group called Thomson Financial and I became a global research analyst in charge of the Thai and Norwegian and Scandinavian market focus on Norway working with pension funds DTI craft Teacher TIA craft calipers. All those were my clients of work to help them understand what the investment was like any different parts of the world. So that was interesting because he was a cross-section of my international policy training my political science training here at issue and also language skills. So it's one of those jobs when you come in the morning you read a newspaper your boss walks by he says he's really working hard you know to keep up with everything that was up in the field. And I enjoyed that a lot but I wanted to do something else so I had gone back to school after I went back to Chicago.
[00:05:55] And you went back to Chicago.
[00:05:56] I went back to Chicago to study business administration. So this time I got a degree in International Business Administration and Economics International Business and Entrepreneurship and during my time there I took time off to go work in investment banking first with Deutsche Bank in Madrid where in the Global Equities Research My job was to follow developments in Latin America Argentina which was serving a lot of trouble and my job was to follow Spanish investment in Latin America and then report every morning to the London office where a research team was so that our clients will have a sense of what was happening but also end up spending a lot of time at the Borsa in Madrid which is the stock exchange. So as a lady you probably appreciate it so Saara Zava outfit. Oh I know it well. So I used to for companies like Zaara. I remember going to the balsa to see when Zara will announce that the reason I say nine Spanish we say Savaş because it's actually the name of the girl the daughter of the owner in the company of his daughter. So I got involved in that Spanish segment business but in Spain it's also a very beautiful country here allow me to travel a lot in this region. I spent time in Portugal time in Spain north and south and stuff and came back to the states worked for a consulting firm. This was after the collapse of Enron and everything else and people were very scared to go to jail. So I worked for a group called the Corporate Executive Board and they were known for best practices. So in my specific case I was in the engagement with CFOs and treasurers of 500 Fortune 500 companies which meant I travel a lot across the U.S. covered of the western region but also regions like Florida. It was great but it was not stimulating CFOs and Treasurers are not the most stimulating conversation. They know their numbers but that's about financial statement. There's only so much you can talk about when you look at the financial statement of the company. So I left that line of business I decide to invest fully in international affairs as an analyst. So since then I've been covering conflicts in places like the DRC. I was embedded with U.N. peacekeeping troops there. I've done a lot of work with Congress who work with DOD. So I work in this intersection of international security international politics congressional staff so it's advocacy analysis and education.
[00:08:37] Yeah.
[00:08:38] Did a tour with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University when I was a fellow and spent about 20 years affiliated with them doing research and others other things and eventually landed up back in D. C. with Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. And over there I teach courses on security and conflict.
[00:08:58] Thats--I didn't realize you had this duality in finance and international relations kind of going throughout your your career.
[00:09:06] Yes.
[00:09:07] Were you always interested I mean was the international side of it being involved in international education. Was that always a part of things and kind of always getting in the front of your mind and in your heart. Or is that something that developed the more that you explore the world international.
[00:09:27] The international part was always there. I think as a kid you know growing up in Zaire the Democratic puppet today Republic of Congo today you cannot help it be international. I mean it's it's the heart of the world it's it's at a crossroads in this region. But I was also very much exposed to a lot of the international stuff. You know my first English teacher was a Peace Corps volunteer right. I read a lot you know lot of kids in our in our part of the world. Our cartoon the main cartoon at the time was Tin Tin or what we call Ten Ten.
[00:10:02] Yeah.
[00:10:03] Ten Ten is a world traveler is a reporter. So those are as young as eight you start learning about Al Capone in Chicago. You learn about Yeti the abominable snowman in Tibet you learn about the faqeer in India. So it's it's not almost it's given to through osmosis. Nobody says you're going to learn international affairs but you followed Ten Ten in Inca in Peru. So when you first read about the Incas and stuff like that you know but you also know the cartoons like Asterix you get learn about the Romans and the goals and so it's sucks you in very early on. And but in my case also I read a lot. So to my parents there was a lot of stuff my father when I was about nine. One of my chores was to listen to the news in the evening and brief him.
[00:10:56] No way
[00:10:58] So you know I made a lot of mistakes but it helped me learn a few things about.
[00:11:02] Wow. Wow that was very forward thinking of them what a great way to educate you and get you to articulate it back to them. That's amazing. Well we were talking a little bit about some of the traveling that you do. And I'd love to ask you what what do you find most rewarding. I know you're in a position to be educating and giving workshops to the military and at all different kinds of things. What what particularly turns you on right now about what you're doing.
[00:11:31] I think it's just the idea to be able to influence somebodies vision of the world look because you want to like to give your own vision to help them connect the dots. I mean the world is full of smart people but smart people do not always connect dot.
[00:11:47] Right.
[00:11:48] Because they see the world in a certain way. We train as humans for thinking boxes and stuff and people don't really see things that are right in front of them. So I think with my varied background my exposure to many things I'm able to do that in ways that not many people can.
[00:12:06] Yeah fantastic. Well it's already I mean I just I'm so enjoying listening to you and hearing about your life. It's already time for our first musical break. And listen is the show know that I love music from all over the world. So I was trying to think I mean with your specialty in African studies and what kinds of things and I have several things to play I have three different songs but I have a there's a Senegalese artist who I've been just recently turned onto and I have a little bit of information on him and he's part of the. His name is Soko Keita K E I T A and one of the things that interesting and we were talking I'm a percussionist but he is plays the kora and is bringing this instrument kind of into sort of more crossover forms in music. And so I want you to check out a song from his. And again you're listening to KSUU Thunder ninety one point one and this artist is called Seku Secoya Seku Keita and the song is called the path from Gabu. Have a listen.
[00:17:41] OK well welcome back to the apex hour. This is Lynn Vartan and you're listening to KSUU thunder ninety one point one. That was the path from Gab by Seckou Keita And that the way spelling is s e c k o u. And the last name is K E I T A. And that instrument was the kora and and this artist is from Senegal. But my guest today we were talking about the music of the Congo music Congolese music. And so Mvemba Dizolele Welcome back to the station.
[00:18:14] Thank you Lynn.
[00:18:15] And please share with me. We were talking I think that as a percussionist it's a little bit of a gap I am I I want to know more about the music of Congo. So you were saying that it's really a sort of essential piece for the continent from a musical standpoint.
[00:18:31] Correct. So the DRC among the many things that we know the country for you know minerals the forest the rain rain forests the river and all that. The DRC is a big powerhouse when it comes to music so it's controlled a lot world music. It's one of the dominant music houses in Africa along with Nigeria and South Africa because long over time diverse music so he goes it's delve deep into a kind of rhumba Cabana Oh you have a lot of that sort of often you can listen to music especially from the 40s and 50s and not be sure if it's a Cuban playing or the Congolese playing. I didn't know that but in part because you know they've been a lot of migration to human trafficking to slavery to the islands. So it is a love that fusion of Congolese culture in the island part of the island from Haiti all the way to Martinique. So if you listen to Zucc you listen to Zuki listen to Kampar you listen to Buena vista social club.
[00:19:34] Yes of course.
[00:19:35] You get a lot of that influence but we also have to keep in mind that Cubans showed up in Africa early in the 50s and 40s to build railroads right so they brought some of the music back to the continent which is a full circle and the DRC has benefited from that quite a bit. And then you go to a different generation. There's a style called rhumba rock which was really promoted by people like the late Papa Wemba. But you know you have groups like a lot of today who's like big eyed all across the continent. You have a specific sound that was developed by people like a phone call from Rumball McAdie and they played a type of what they call Congolese jazz. So it's almost impossible for it to be on the continent or the party and not listen to Congolese music. I think it's very dominant that way. There's also a strain of Lady artists in Congo. This goes again deep into the 40s with people like ladies like Lucy saying today of people I can barely a bell and you're younger both on the instrument and on the vocal environment so it's a very important feature of Congolese culture.
[00:20:47] What is the Congolese jazz like. What style is it sort of an upbeat jazz or is it more mellow or is it does it have specifically.
[00:20:55] It is more upbeat somewhere in between these more tempo because there is a symbol in the communities of learning to develop a specific sound with the guitar.
[00:21:03] Oh.
[00:21:04] So sometimes when you hear the Congolese play the guitar you're not sure what instrument is that.
[00:21:09] Really.
[00:21:09] Its the guitar. So They develop a specific string and they recommend some for you.
[00:21:14] Yes. Is there a specific guitarist that comes to mind.
[00:21:18] Oh there are many of them there's one named Rego Starr there's one name. Franco himself was a big guitar. OK so that's what he was.
[00:21:25] Well we'll definitely try to get some title some artists written down and we'll post it on our website. I'm sure people are I mean I can't wait to study and listen. Thank you for sharing.
[00:21:36] My pleasure.
[00:21:37] Well as we talk about the Congolese culture and some of the topics and some of your research and your travels Can you give us a little bit of an outline of your talk today. For those who maybe didn't get a chance to hear it or her listening now and want to know a little bit more about your presentation today.
[00:21:56] So my presentation today was called Congo or the center of the world's revolutions. And the objective is simply to point out that you know countries are not created equal like human beings. Countries also have specific DNA.
[00:22:12] Those are powerful statements. Both of them.
[00:22:15] So and this depends on the history of the country where they're located what kind of endowments they have.
[00:22:22] Right.
[00:22:22] Some countries have more resources financial some countries are more natural resources. In the case of the DRC the DRC because of its resources has been present at all the major development of the modern world. And when I talk about the modern world I'm talking about I think in the 15th century you know what I call the the series of river world revolutions. So I talk to them about the spice revolution which triggered the so-called exploration age Portuguese and Spaniards being there the powers the time set out to discover the world quote unquote that's really what they were looking was to spice there the regime the diet while the food was very bland in Europe. You know British food is still bland today. Bless them but you know they had to find a curry in India to find Pili Pili in the paprika elsewhere. But that and that initiative spur tremendous growth in the economy. You know people are making millions of dollars maybe billions in today's with inflation accounted for trading with spices and shipping. So it's shipping it spurred good health because the food was getting better was healthier but it's also spurred scientific development. Right so the exploration itself is not just about getting on a ship getting on a ship means you have to have a financier If you invest so you can build your ship.
[00:23:55] Right.
[00:23:56] That's why people like Christopher Columbus need the backing of queens and kings.
[00:24:00] Exactly.
[00:24:00] But you also need it beyond the Financier need people will be the scientific side of it and the cartographer the Mariners the good guys will follow the stars. So you know it doesn't happen to the way it happened to Christopher Columbus. He got lost.
[00:24:15] Yeah we're thankful thank God for him. He was able to find his way back. He got lost.
[00:24:20] Yeah.
[00:24:21] So you have all these developments happening as part of that space revolution. But as part of that space revolution we also end up with slavery right here because this discovery created new needs of labor and stuff. So the same places where these Western countries at the time these power for nations were sending the navigators they started doing things that it's been doing like selling human beings and. But Congo again in that dimension was very key. Congo continued about 25 percent of all Africans who came to the United States alone.
[00:24:56] 25 percent.
[00:24:57] Twenty Five percent roughly of all Africans who came to the United States from the Congo region. So the contribution is huge. The incidence is much higher in the islands. Places like Jamaica Bob Marley sings about Congo bomb woman. Oh right. You know Haiti is very Congo Nation as they call themselves then by the time you get to Martinique you see ever again I say Buena Vista Social Club when only talk about Macumba and Candomblé and Santería. You get a lot of Congo culture element you know doing the speech today the presentation today or talked about New Orleans if you get to New Orleans you have Congo Square was square is there because of where the African used to go to get a lot of heavy presence of Congo people where there the way they bury people in New Orleans with music that's very much can be traced directly to the Congo culture. I remember walking one day I was in Jamaica just walking on the beach and met a fellow Jamaican guy we exchanged pleasantries and start talking and he asked Where are you from. I said I'm from Congo and he was so excited he came across to shake my hand. And he said in Jamaican patois you are the original man. Wow. I understand exactly what he meant so he meant like you are my ancestor or where we came from. And the source.
[00:26:16] Yeah.
[00:26:16] So this stuff that we don't always connect to. Yeah let's also talk about the industrial revolution which is what spurred the technological side of things which was fueled primarily through coal with the you know steam train and so the key part of the industrial revolution was rubber because a tire automobile right. Ford and everybody else. And of course rubber was not found everywhere in the world. A big chunk of the contribution to the economy of the time. We've gone from space. Now we're dealing with rubber here and was in Congo. So we all read about the Heart of Darkness King Leopold's ghosts or Apocalypse Now. That story is Congo so again without cold rubber we don't know what shape the industrial revolution will have taken the Tootoo noise Congo play tremendous role in that. So you can go on. Today we're dealing you know this was the same way forward to the Manhattan Project with the atomic bomb the atomic revolution but the atomic revolution cannot be possible without Congo because uranium specific type of isotope food various type of premium uranium that uranium is found in Congo in a few other place but for sure the two bombs that the U.S. dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were made with Congolese uranium. So I always like to say that little man and Fat Boy were Congolese have been made in America.
[00:27:50] Yeah right.
[00:27:51] And today we're dealing with digital revolution. Our computers our PlayStation the material that is needed for that is called Tarran tungsten Columbites. All those are found in abundance in the DRC.
[00:28:05] Yeah.
[00:28:06] And then finally what I call the Tesla revolution with the Elon Musk revolution hybrid cars car running on batteries that you can recharge. It's driven by Cobalt. And the largest producer of cobalt is Congo So again I think different countries in different places in the world contribute differently. Some countries are very good in coming up with technological innovation right. Some countries are very good in financing things. Some countries are good at producing what you need right to change the world and the DRC is in that bracket.
[00:28:42] And how do you feel that. I mean the support for this nation. I mean I feel don't you think we should be supporting the nation more and how I know that is such a huge conversation but I'm sure that you have strong feelings about the support that that is being offered to the nation now and where what could be changing in the future.
[00:29:05] I think we need to realize that the world now is much more interconnected than it's ever been in part because of this race revolution especially the outpoll digital revolution and then this Tesla revolution. So that means people around the world are yearning for the same thing namely freedom freedom of expression to be able to determine their own destiny in governance. And I think as the developed nations of the world need these resources they need to be mindful of the welfare of the people where these resources come from we are better off when everybody can contribute in a way that is meaningful to them and to our world as opposed to being the one which is exploiting others. Because when we exploit others we never safe our security is always in danger. We have to continue exploiting them so they don't rise up because when they rise up then they are denied access to us. But think about the give and take of it if they can do their thing they can work well then we can exchange in much more meaningful way and would have to be or we can have a win win situation. It doesn't have to have a zero sum. Because I think so far we approach this stuff in a zero sum zero sum doesn't work you know with the environmental stuff for instance. Today we talk about the thinning of the ice cap. We talk about water rising. We talk about the ozone layer thinning. So global warming this X number of things that people in the north in the Greater North meaning Western nations can do but Western nations don't control everything when it comes to global warming. Congo as large endowment of forests in fact people say is the second lung of the world really. So if the Congolese are not getting a fair share with the minerals and that is stuff villages and communities are forced to live off the farm of the trees logging is going to help people in the US. So Canada alone cannot change the course of global warming. You need places like Congo places like Brazil Brazil is the other lung of the world. So how do you engage them I think we need to come up with solutions that are win-win and Zero-Sum.
[00:31:15] Great. Well when we come back I'd love to continue to talk more about our solutions and look ahead to the future and get your opinions on what what things can change and how things can change but in the meantime we have another song for you. This artist is a young artist.
[00:31:33] This is more contemporary R and B and her name is Ravyn Lanae and the song is called SPICE. She's been compared to like a combination between Little Dragon and Erykah Badu. So check her out and see what you think this is the apex hour and you're listening to KSUU ninety one point one.
[00:35:27] OK welcome back to the apex hour KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. I love the ending of that song. That song is called Spice.
[00:35:35] And originally I said Raavan but I think that surname is probably pronounced Ravyn r a v y n last name is Lenae L E N A E.
[00:35:48] And again that song was called SPICE.
[00:35:50] So we're back here in the studio and we're celebrating our great alumnus Mvemba Dizolele welcome back.
[00:35:57] Thank you Lynn.
[00:35:58] We were talking over the break while the song was playing about how interested I am in your work as an interpreter and I'd love to just ask you a little bit more about the art of interpreting both in language interpretation but as you view yourself as an interpreter in other ways in your life. So if you could share with us first of all what you think about interpreting and how it goes beyond just language and then let's see where that takes us.
[00:36:28] I spent some time working as interpreter about working mostly French Spanish and English. And it's a very challenging because interpreting is not only stuff you learn but you also have to have a gift for it because it's really lending your voice to somebody else's thoughts.
[00:36:50] Right.
[00:36:51] And for the benefit of a third person.
[00:36:53] Yeah.
[00:36:54] So which means it's almost into opening is almost having an out of body experience because you can't speak the language but you're not capable of. It happens in real time. It involves feelings beyond words. It involves thoughts beyond words. And it involves you connecting the person for which the message is intended as not about you. So you become the vehicle under which this communication this exchange between various parties are taking is taking place. And I think which is different from translating.
[00:37:30] Right.
[00:37:30] Because translating you have a time to go to the dictionary and you can flip. You can try to find the nuances. You can wait for five minutes to come back to the document right in interpreting. I don't have time for that.
[00:37:41] Right.
[00:37:42] And in fact that's why sometimes they've blamed wars and other conflicts on the interpreter.
[00:37:46] Yeah.
[00:37:46] That's not the word. That's not what I meant right. But I think that skill set for me it helped me a lot in other things that I do. you know whether when I was working in investment banking in Spain or when I when I was working for Morgan Stanley in London because I had them connect the dot event in a way that makes sense to the people might be looking at event and seeing different things. Because in reality you know people talk about the devil being in the details.
[00:38:14] Right.
[00:38:14] I don't see that way. I think the devil doesn't live in the details. Maybe come into all in there to check the details amidst the details. But I think the devil lives in the definition. And the definition is exactly what matters to you. In other words you see something how you define the things determines what you experience and how you engage that thing. I thought that being that situation SO and different people can see different things and define them differently and people can even use the same word and to have the same meaning to it.
[00:38:49] Yeah.
[00:38:50] And that becomes a serious issue. So you know I think this is why economists bless their heart they always say assuming there's no reason to make assumptions so everybody understand what exactly they mean you know. So that's that's become so. I see. Part of what I do I didn't in writing. What in analyzing world security and other international affairs is to be an interpreter. In looking between the lines reading between the lines saying what does this mean. Somebody may a. I see this you say were can we tend to think upside down. Let's see if you still see the same thing you were saying before.
[00:39:28] Yeah.
[00:39:28] And that becomes a very important thing. And I think our education should actually prepare us more as interpreters than anything.
[00:39:37] In your teaching and then your work with students or even in the workshops that you give. Are there any ways that you can recommend to students or or interested people to develop this sense or the ability to interpret. Is there a way to hone it or to learn it.
[00:39:56] Well I think first and foremost is through interaction because as human beings we are learning beings.
[00:40:04] Yeah.
[00:40:05] So we are it's always a give and take. Every interaction we have with our fellow human beings hopefully leave us better off than we were before. And then we learn from what they say and from the way they act. So I would say the idea to learn more we need to live lower our guards so we can interact truly interact with our fellow human beings because then we learn and that learning serves us in this situation. Right. So what I've learned from my interaction with you hopefully will help me interpret certain situations. Yeah yeah. So me as well yeah vice versa right now. So I think true that becomes very important. Often we don't see a thing because we have our own blinders to want to see certain things early on the program or stalking that we are trained to think in boxes. Yes but in reality life is not about boxes. We need to learn to take the panoramic view and that.
[00:41:02] I love that great quote.
[00:41:04] Take the scenic route is more interesting it takes longer. It's always better. So I think that's part of so as we go to our education to places like issue other to our readings to film. So whatever we do hopefully we are all learning new material that challenge our lenses maybe make our lenses our prism much more clear and transparent as opposed to tinted and colored as they often are with lenses that tinted both through our experiences our culture our personal lives that we need to try to get those things those colors those films away from the line so we can magically. And I think that makes us better interpret it that way.
[00:41:48] That's a beautiful beautiful way to put it. I love that. Thank you for keeping on the student route. One of the things that we talk a lot about with students is you know where they go from here. And all of these things and one of the questions I asked you earlier which I'd love to talk a little more about is is what did you gain from your time and your undergraduate degree here at SUU or even in school in general. That may help students. Moving forward is there any words of wisdom that you have that we could maybe talk about a little bit more.
[00:42:25] Yeah I think when I reflect on my time at SUU but also as a graduate student I'll say first of all don't take things that seriously it's not that serious. It's not that serious so take the time to know your classmates. take the time to actually go to the syllabus to the the course listings and take more of the classes you like and less the classes that you must have to take. We have enough in the curriculum everywhere they require so many required courses or and others can take those because if you take them there they are required to graduate.
[00:43:03] Right.
[00:43:04] But I think you need to make your education in the way that ala carte. What do you want to do. What do you want to see your life be like if you have to design your own life your own resume. As a freshman as a sophomore what would you like to be. You want to be the renaissance woman. Or do you want to be just the nerd. All right. I think it's much better to be the renaissance women or. I mean even Einstein was a renaissance man is known for all the nerdy stuff. Equal MC Squared stuff that really was much broader person. So I think take classes that you are afraid of Do not be afraid to have a D its fine. I had a D when I was young and I graduated summa cum laude with my D. I went onto one of the best schools in the world. So do the best you can do but really enjoy your time it's only four years of your life. We live to be 85. Imagine four years. So you don't want your four years to constrain the rest of your life. Take the classes you need. You want to take that you enjoy. Don't choose your major in relation to or actually measure to listen to unfulfillment because most people in life don't do what they went to school for anyway.
[00:44:11] I'd love to kind of zero in on that a little bit it's too sort of tying in very nicely with some of the discussions we had last week where we were talking about the workforce and how you know a lot of the specifics can be trained by companies but what companies are looking for is a complete person. You know somebody who has this sort of renaissance but this renaissance man Renaissance woman kind of attitude and the ability to think and communicate. Would you say that's true for how you think as well.
[00:44:43] Absolutely. I think today companies professional situations consultancies are not looking for cookie cutters right. So you don't want to be like somebody just came out of an assembly line with your bachelor's in political science. You want somebody who is from who's had a degree in political science knows a lot about what happened in music who knows how to do pottery you can talk about the stuff when you're sitting on an airplane with some woman was a percussionist.
[00:45:12] Yeah.
[00:45:13] And talk about the sound of music and stuff. So it becomes improv because companies are looking for value added. Yeah you don't want to be a cookie cutter because you want to be you. They're looking for unique your unique you and unique and you make you competitive. Right. In other words you want to be as irreplaceable as possible. It's very difficult that you want to be that. So they can say Oh she does x y z so good in the way that would have many people do that. So being this kind of versatile individual with a degree in Political Science degree in French allows you to transcend different words and the way the employment world the professional world itself is so dynamic. People now do hold the same job for 30 years. They change a lot of jobs and jobs are mutating and changing. So the more versatile you are in your exposure in your education the more probably flexible you will be and competitive going down down your life. So to me the advice if I had to do my education or places like SUU I would be take all of writing classes fast as I did take English composition is great. I think I write okay but doing more of that would be interesting maybe write more for the Thunderbird maybe do a couple more communication and broadcasting classes come here spend time at the registration as a volunteer. Yeah I mean I end up doing broadcasting for the Voice of America. It turned out ok for me but I had another set of skills that I didn't develop here. And even good if I had for instance done radio while I was here take some theater classes go act over there. This is the Shakespeare capital of the world. So many put unities here it's only four years only so much you can pack in there. But don't cheat yourself just think that that goes along with. And don't worry too much about grades grades. They will not matter of 10 years after you leave school. You need to graduate so.
[00:47:09] Of course.
[00:47:09] Graduate and be the best at what you do. But this should not be the only factor.
[00:47:13] I'm so glad that you emphasized that I talked to my students and I talked to my team a lot about learning all these different skills and cobbling them all together because I mean I know in my life it sounds like in your life as well. All these different things have come to make you an indispensable member of teams or departments and that's it. It makes you unique it makes you marketable. It makes you valuable.
[00:47:40] That people are looking for unique people. We all like that unique guy unique lady. Oh she's so cool. Yeah but just because of a certain things to add to our lives we're not competing we don't want to be we don't want to be carbon copies but we just want to be us right. And I think we are endowed with different skill sets and we need to develop those various talents and genius sometimes fail at school.
[00:48:01] Yes.
[00:48:02] Genius is a PhDs.
[00:48:03] Exactly. Well I can't believe we are already nearly out of time which is amazing. We could spent hours and hours. But I have one question that I always ask everybody who listens to the show. knows it's kind of one of these things where we ask it every week and it's it's an easy question and it's what's turning you on right now which means it could be a book or a TV show or a song or an artist or a podcast or a movie. It doesn't have to be anything academic it's just kind of another way for somebody to get a an interesting little personal take. And so I'd love to ask you. Outstanding Alumnus for 2018. Mvemba Dizolele what is turning you on this week.
[00:48:50] This week I'm just just to me teaching. I mean I'm here of course I teach every week my classes so once a course started I'm so connected to my students. Cannot wait to get back to them. So that's what I'm driven just by that connection.
[00:49:07] And I asked you this earlier but what are those classes that you're teaching right now and I know you have a really exciting one coming up in the spring.
[00:49:14] So this semester I'm teaching a class called Conflict in the African Great Lakes. It's a graduate level courses graduate master's and PhDs. And we deal a lot with conflict in the sub region of Africa on the Great Lakes eastern Congo Rwanda Burundi issues of genocide issues of ethnic violence politics of exclusion and all that stuff is part of this international relations package and next semester I'm teaching a course called Africa security challenges governance the military and insurgencies and that cross. So we deal with terrorists and al-Qaeda in the Maghreb Boko Haram in Nigeria. We deal with al Shabaab. We deal with armies of Africa how they deal with. We deal with European armies Western armies how to engage in Africa. Africa Command we deal with youth discontent. You have a lot of riots across the continent because of youth not having access to employment to education. We deal with the mismanagement or management of natural resources. We deal with women empowerment literally. What makes this world work awful. Up in flames. So it's fascinating stuff. Grad students my student come from around the world from different perspective. I have a lot of military officers who are on the way to becoming defense attaches around Africa. Former Peace Corps former NGO type of thing so it's a combination of everyone and that stuff I find very exciting talking about what turns you on.
[00:50:48] Yeah.
[00:50:50] I mean you teach but you learn a lot from your school and they bring their own set of experiences as they come to the classroom as well.
[00:50:56] Thank you so much for spending this time today. It's been an honor to have you on campus. And welcome back to SUU. And we will all be following your career as you move forward in your life.
[00:51:06] Thank you very much. This is home so it's a great honor to be here.
[00:51:09] Well we'll look forward to having you back again soon. But for now we're going to say goodbye from the APEX hour and we'll see you next week. Thanks so much for listening to the apex hour here on KSUU Thunder ninety one point one. Come find us again next Thursday at 3:00p.m. for more conversations with the visiting guests at Southern Utah University and new music to discover for your next playlist. And in the meantime we would love to see you at our events on campus. Find out more. Check out suu.edu/apex until next week. This is Lynn Vartan saying goodbye from the apex hour here on Thunder ninety one point one.
