Stumbling Into a Perfect Fit
Students come to Weber State for different reasons. Some are lured by scholarships. Others are drawn to the reputation of a specific program or professor. To cut costs, many students choose a school close to home. Joshua Redhair came to WSU in 2013 because he was trapped.
On his own since 18, the Provo, Utah, native had flunked out of Utah Valley University and was working a dead-end retail job in Riverdale, Utah. “It took a couple of years of that before I realized I wanted to travel the world and get involved in politics one way or another,” Redhair said. Luckily, Weber State (with its open-admission policy) was just around the corner.
“My original plan was to get my associate’s degree and transfer to a ‘better’ school. Then I got into Weber State’s political science program, met my professors and thought, ‘Wow! This is an amazing place, and I want to stay here!’” recalled Redhair, who graduated in the spring of 2016.
In the summer of 2015, Redhair participated in a study abroad program led by Stephanie Wolfe, assistant political science professor. During the eye-opening trip to Africa, he interacted with victims and perpetrators of Rwanda’s grisly 1994 genocide. The experience motivated him to work for a nongovernmental organization that promotes peace and development in war-torn regions.
First, though, comes graduate school. Following a summer internship with the international group Never Again Rwanda, the former college dropout has begun a master’s program at the University of Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies in Brussels, Belgium.