By Kefa Senoga
When Pamela Tumwebaze joined the three-year-old Uganda Christian University (UCU) in 2000 as an undergraduate student, neither she nor the institution envisioned that it was the start of what would become nearly two decades of a symbiotic relationship.
In the 21 years since Tumwebaze completed her undergraduate course at UCU in 2003, she has worked both for UCU and other organizations beyond the university. The farther she moved away from UCU, however, the harder her heart beat for her to return to her alma mater.
When she left the country for a teaching job in Rwanda, she was there for just two years. When she went farther to Tanzania for yet another teaching job, it was not for more than one year.
Tumwebaze eventually returned home, but was still hesitant to return to UCU. As such, she got a job in a non-governmental organization, but that was not for long, until she returned to her home, UCU. Today, she is the university’s new Director of Students Affairs (DOSA).
Tumwebaze recalls that in 2003, after attaining her Bachelor of Arts with Education from UCU, she took a job as a tutorial assistant in the Faculty of Education. Thereafter, she pursued a Master of Arts in Literature at UCU. She is currently completing another master’s degree, MA Strategic Communication at UCU.
At the university, she has served in the positions of teaching assistant, administrative assistant, Executive Assistant to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academic Affairs, Executive Officer to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Finance and Administration and the Head of the Honors College, a role she currently juggles with being DOSA, a position she has held for three months now.
As DOSA, Tumwebaze says she has to serve all the students in the university, as opposed to the job at Honors College, where it’s just a select few of the university’s top students. The Honors College, whose concept is borrowed from the Dutch and American universities, admits only the institution’s crème de la crème students from the different faculties.
Applicants must have at least a 4.0 Cumulative Grade-Point Average out of 5.0 to be enrolled to the college that offers talented students the opportunity to tap on their mettle through an extra certificate-program, alongside the regular bachelor’s degree course.
Tumwebaze says she enjoys working and guiding young people who are still going through formation. “I love to see them become adults, I also love the chaos that comes with being young because I guess it says much about them,” she notes.
“Being DOSA means looking at probably a 20-year-old troublesome young adult. But five or more years from now, that 20-year-old may be a CEO or a big-name journalist; so, what can we do now to make sure that they become that?” Tumwebaze asks.
As a mother, Tumwebaze views students as children, she understands that each child has weaknesses and uniquenesses and that there is something about each of them that needs to be groomed into something better. She is a mother of two boys and is married to Alexander Matsiko whom she met at UCU.
“As the older generation, we have the burden of putting things into perspective for the younger generation; if we don’t focus on that then we could lose the next generation,” Tumwebaze warns.
She notes that her job as DOSA requires a skill set that comes with having an open mind because “everyday has its own shocks.”
Tumwebaze comes from a large family in Mbarara, a district in western Uganda. She attended St. Helens Primary School Mbarara for her primary education and Kyeizooba Girls Secondary School in Bushenyi district for her secondary education. From Kyeizooba, she joined UCU for her undergraduate course.
