Brenda Chisanga Salasini says her life changed when she was awarded the Anglin Scholarship to pursue graduate studies at Carleton University.
Says Salasini: “It’s so amazing how one man can make a difference in the lives of many. I am grateful to Dr. Anglin and his family for affording me a life time experience and demonstrating what it means to sacrifice for a better world.”
After spending years working at the University of Zambia, Doug Anglin, a professor emeritus at Carleton, and his wife Mary decided to fund a scholarship that would bring a student from the University of Zambia to study at Carleton.
So far, there have been three recipients. Salasini is the most recent.
She was born in Zambia, the second child in a family of seven. She says her family “didn’t have much” but, because of her parents, “I felt like a rich kid and went to school believing that not even the sky was my limit.”
In 2010, after completing a degree at the University of Zambia in Biological Sciences, Salasini was hoping to attend medical school when an horrific traffic accident resulted in severe spine injuries.
While healing, she was offered and accepted a job as a lecturer at the University of Zambia. “To my surprise, I began to enjoy teaching. Every time I managed to improve a student’s performance, it was a wonderful moment for me. I was fulfilled!”
Her med dream died a natural death.
Salasini was awarded the Anglin Scholarship in 2013 to come to Carleton to pursue a degree in plant science and then return to the University of Zambia to teach.
She ended up working in Dr. Shelley Hepworth’s lab.
Shelley Hepworth, Brenda Chisanga Salasini, her daughter and mother
Says Hepworth: “In Zambia, students learn from a textbook with little or no access to working equipment. What equipment they do have is often broken, so they show it to the students and explain how it would work if it were functional. I remember during her first week, Brenda’s eyes lit up when she saw the PCR machine in my biology lab, and the microscope that she would use for her research.”
Salasini says that Hepworth was a great role model. “What I appreciate the most and will carry with me is her commitment to make me a better student and person in general.”
While researching in the Hepworth lab, Salasini investigated a group of genes that regulate flowering time. “For plant breeders, shifting the seasonal timing of reproduction (flowering time) is a major goal in order to produce novel varieties that are better adapted to local environments.”
This leads to more efficient crop breeding in response to unfavourable climate change which is impacting growing seasons in many parts of the world including Canada and Zambia.
Salasini also enjoyed attending classes. “The lessons were very practical and mind-capturing. I learnt that, as a teacher, we should allow students to explore their potential by stimulating interesting ideas. In short what we teach should not be carved in stone.”
But perhaps the biggest influence was Anglin himself. “When we first met over lunch, I was amazed by his friendliness and felt as if we had met before. By the end of lunch, I concluded that this man had a big picture for Zambia as a whole and was passionate about making a positive impact on our educational system.”
“I look at myself today and I am not the same. I want to give and make a positive change in someone’s life. In that way, I can inspire and continue being inspired. Someone made a sacrifice for me to make this world a better place. That is “greatness”.
Salasini completed her Biology degree at Carleton in June and is now a staff member at the University of Zambia in the Biological Sciences department, school of Natural Sciences. Classes began last October and Salasini says she will draw on her Carleton experience while teaching.
In addition to his generous scholarship, Doug Anglin also donated his rich collection of records, articles and other documents to the Institute of African Studies at Carleton. He taught comparative and African politics at Carleton from 1958 until his retirement in 1989. He was also the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zambia from 1965 to 1969. His last trip to Zambia was in 2011 when he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Zambia.”
Brenda Chisanga Salasini with Dr. Anglin
More details about the Anglin scholarship can be found here.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 in Alumni, Awards, Grad Student Research, News
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