Help Nana Umar: College Tuition, Johnson & Wales

Nana Umar is a 21 year old student from northern Nigeria entering her senior year in the Health Sciences program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. Nana has just completed a 250-hour summer internship at a residential mental health facility and looks forward to graduating in May 2023. Nana has a four-year "You are Welcome Here" scholarship for international students to attend JWU, but she is not eligible for federal financial aid or student loans. She still needs about $7,000 to cover her full costs of attending. Her family of eight makes less than $800 per year, and she is the first in her family to attend college.

Nana has overcome years of poverty, homelessness, and terrorist attacks that destroyed her family's home and business to fulfill her dream of pursuing an education in the U.S. She is a determined, outgoing, and optimistic young woman whose goal is to provide health care to women and girls in northern Nigeria, who are often prohibited by their families from being treated by male doctors. She hopes to also become a certified midwife because she loves babies! At JWU, Nana is the President of the Black Student Alliance and President of the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.

In 2018, Nana was one of 18 students out of 800 applicants from Nigeria accepted into a US State Department-sponsored program to have the chance to study at an American high school through AFS (American Field Studies). She was an exchange student at Falmouth High School in Falmouth, Massachusetts. 

As her AFS host mom and US Sponsor, I will disburse any donations made to help Nana continue her education at JWU. Your donations will help pay her tuition. I have personally committed to covering Nana's room and board, health insurance, books, and personal expenses. She will be extremely appreciative of your assistance and make you proud to have supported her.