The Big Rhetorical Podcast Episode 26: Nkeiruka Ruth Nwobodo

In the second season premiere of The Big Rhetorical Podcast, Charles chats with Nkeiruka Ruth Nwobodo, a graduate student at Illinois State University. Nwobodo is a 25-year-old woman who loves to be extra. She was born and raised in Nigeria. As a child her father always read to her and her siblings “letter of Abraham Lincoln to his son’s teacher." She became fascinated with the man Lincoln as such, intrigued by anything he was associated with. When she discovered he was from Illinois she became obsessed with Illinois. She would pronounce Illinois as a child with the “s." She had no idea that fate had destined that she would come to this land with cold winters. When she moved to the US in 2018, it was a dream come true; she thought of herself as a character in a 60s movie setting off to a distant land in search of knowledge. She was excited by the new prospect of studying outside the shores of her home country, she did not give any thought to the challenges that she would be facing as an international student. Nwobodo: "Has it been challenging? Yes it has, but it is a challenge I have learnt to live and deal with it and a challenge I would take up again."