At National Taiwan University’s (NTU) graduation ceremony on Saturday, a PhD student from Tanzania shared his journey from poverty to studying and building a home in Taiwan, where he is now able to give back to his hometown by supporting children’s education.
Graduating with his doctorate from NTU’s Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, Nathan Thadeo Yoashi said he grew up in a farming family in Tanzania, where they lacked electricity, clean water and enough food.
He studied by moonlight and did math problems in the fields, accompanied by cows and sheep, he said in his speech as an international student representative.
Photo courtesy of NTU
Having to help his family on the farm, Yoashi said he could only attend school three days a week, yet he consistently ranked in the top three of his class of 150 students.
When an English teacher came to their school, he worked hard on his language skills and was later chosen to serve as translator and event host for Jane Goodall when she visited their school.
Goodall encouraged him to continue participating in the Roots and Shoots program and promised to support him financially if he was ever in need, he said.
He was the only student from his elementary school to be admitted to junior high school for gifted students, but it was three hours away from his home by train, he said.
Thanks to Goodall’s financial support, he was able to live and study at the school and continue his educational growth.
He was then recommended to study in Taiwan and admitted to Chang Jung Christian University (CJCU) in Tainan.
After arriving in Taiwan, he said he learned Mandarin and Taiwanese through the church and agricultural communities.
After graduating from CJCU, he was admitted to NTU’s Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering for his graduate studies and was advised by professor Hsi Hsing-cheng (席行正).
While at NTU, he co-founded the African Student Association and helped facilitate a memorandum of understanding between NTU and the University of Dar es Salaam.
Towards the end of his speech, Yoashi spoke of losing his mother in 2006 and more recently his lifelong mentor, Goodall.
Continuing Goodall’s legacy, he said he now donates half of his salary every month to support the education of five children in his hometown.
He has built a home and family in Taiwan, marrying a Taiwanese woman and now raising a young son, but it is his dream to build a school in his hometown in Tanzania, he said.
Closing with advice for his fellow graduates, he said, “Do not strive merely to lead. Learn first to serve and you naturally will become a person of true impact.”
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