Student Experiences
The USP welcomes all kinds of students to embark on a transformative academic journey in Uganda. We recognize that each students’ experience may be slightly unique because it depends most significantly on the specific student’s approach, priorities, personality, etc. Following are some other characteristics that have had an effect on prior students’ experiences in specific ways and may affect your experience:
Gender
All students should be aware of cultural differences that require thoughtful packing and dress on campus at Uganda Christian University. Female students will be required to wear skirts or dresses that reach the knees when walking/standing, modest tops that cover shoulders, at-least-to-the-ankle dress slacks, and dress shoes/sandals. Male students should wear belted, at-least-to-the-ankle dress slacks, collared shirts, and dress shoes or closed-toed leather sandals. To get a visual idea of acceptable UCU wear, check out our Facebook album: What to Wear at USP. While UCU has more than 6,000 undergraduate students with almost equal numbers of male and female students, the Uganda Studies Program group is most often predominantly female, and sometimes there are as few as 1 or 2 male USP students. All students will receive training during orientation about how to engage with Ugandans in a culturally appropriate way at your practicum, homestay, on campus, etc.
Race
Regardless of the race of a particular USP student, your experience in Uganda is likely to differ in some ways from the US. For many white students, the experience of being a racial minority is new and takes some time to get used to. Black students sometimes experience special hospitality from Ugandans as members of the African diaspora and other times experience different reactions as some Ugandans implicitly expect any visitors from the US to be white. USP has also had students from Asian, Latino/Latina, Arab and Native backgrounds. Depending on a number of factors, Ugandans may assume that students from these racial or ethnic backgrounds is white or Black or from one of the more common ethnic minorities in Uganda (e.g. South Asian, Chinese).
Regardless of the racial and ethnic background of USP students, the program does its best to orient, prepare and support students for the different experiences they will have. In addition, the program provides orientation and preparation for Ugandan hosts (host families, practicum site supervisors, roommates, etc.) who will be interacting significantly with USP students.
If you are an incoming or prospective student and would like to be connected to a USP alumni from a similar background, please reach out to USP Director, Emily Entsminger.
Faith
At the Uganda Studies Program, we embrace a Christ-centered perspective in education, which recognizes Christ as the creator, redeemer, restorer, and Lord of both the visible and invisible aspects of the world. Therefore, we approach academic disciplines such as health, social work, business, literature, history, and others as inherently created by God, for God's glory and the betterment of mankind. However, this perspective does not imply that we attempt to find Bible verses for every scientific problem, isolate ourselves from diverse ideas present in the world, or solely rely on texts written by Christians. Instead, it means that we firmly believe and teach that even in our imperfect world, all truth, goodness, and beauty found in any academic discipline or area of life are ultimately rooted in Christ. Our aim is to educate students from this perspective so that they can grow in their wonder and love for God while deepening their understanding of Christ's role in their life and vocation. You do not need to be a Christian to attend, but we want all students to clearly understand the context in which they will study and the foundations that guide the program inside and outside the classroom.
