As a faculty member at West Virginia University, Angela Uriyo remembers the first time she set foot on campus more than 50 years after her late father attended school here.
" It was just a very surreal moment. I may be walking in the same places he walked. There may be people who came across my dad during that time," she said. "It would have been so neat if he were still alive to see this."
Andrew Uriyo grew up in the small village of Marangu, Tanzania, on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. In the 1960s, however, he had the opportunity to study at WVU as part of the East Africa Project, a major international initiative taken on by the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design.
Funded through a USAID contract, the project partnered the Davis College with three African countries – Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda – to build agricultural education capacity and train the next generation of agricultural leaders and scholars in those nations.
The program allowed Davis College faculty to live, work and teach in the three countries while many Kenyan, Tanzanian and Ugandan students pursued graduate degrees at WVU.
The oldest of four children – and the only one to attend college – Andrew Uriyo was a dedicated and successful student while working on his master’s degree in soil science.
According to Angela, he lived modestly and saved money to support his family in Tanzania. After graduating, he returned home to work at Sokoine University, complete his Ph.D. through a correspondence course with a Norwegian University and marry his wife.
By 1981, the Uriyo family grew to include four young daughters, including Angela. Later, the family would relocate to Nigeria when Andrew got a job with International Institute of Tropical Agriculture.
It was in Nigeria where the younger Uriyo would spend her formative years surrounded by research scientists from around the globe. The family lived frugally, Angela said, with the aim of making sure the children succeeded.
“He was an absolute saver. He lived a very disciplined life. He could have lived lavishly, buying this and taking many vacations. We would only do the once a year travel to see family in Tanzania. He only drove a company vehicle. Everything else, he just poured into educating us,” she said.
The international atmosphere developed Angela’s initial interest in fashion design and textiles. She came to the United States for college, attending Virginia Tech for her bachelor’s and master’s and completing a doctorate at the University of Missouri.
During her time at Virginia Tech, Angela made trips to Morgantown for football games to cheer on the Hokies against the rival Mountaineers. At the time, she never gave much thought to the connection between WVU and her family.
According to Angela, her father was humble and practical. He also didn’t talk about his time in the U.S. or at WVU.
It wasn’t until she found herself applying and interviewing for a faculty position with the College’s fashion, dress and merchandising program that she began to see things coming full circle.
“I thought, ‘How can it be the same school? Same college?’ He was in agriculture. But that was the whole point, you know? Fabric starts from plants. It was so weird that this is exactly where he went to school,” she recalled.
“I really feel like this is more than just a coincidence, that I am meant to do my work here. I have to make him proud of course,” she said. “I really want to show through the work that I do with the students, the research, or kind of service that I can do, what kind of special place this is.”