Brief Tender Light

As undergraduate students at America’s premier technological university, a group of ambitious African students come of age, learning lessons in and beyond the classroom. They embarked on their MIT education with individual ambitions –  to run a civil engineering company and be a shining example for girls in Tanzania; to secure a better life for family in northern Nigeria; to contribute to postgenocide reconstruction in Rwanda; to enter into politics and the fight for democracy in Zimbabwe. Their missions are distinct, but fueled by a common goal: to become agents of positive change back home.

Even as their dreams are anchored in the societies they have left, their daily realities are defined by America – by the immediate challenges in their MIT classrooms and the larger social issues confronting the world outside of those classrooms. Their new environment demands they adapt. Each is forced to refine their ideas about the world and about themselves, ultimately deciding how much of America to absorb, how much of Africa to hold on to, and how to transform youthful ideals into adult action.