Wonder Woman Wednesday #7: Takako Mino
Meet the woman who started the first liberal arts college in Uganda!
Did you know that Uganda ranks as the #3 country worldwide for female entrepreneurs as a percentage of all business owners?
And did you also know that Uganda has had — by far — the longest education shutdown worldwide and in history?
This week I sat down with Dr. Takako Mino,
Co-Founder of Musizi University, an upcoming private liberal arts and sciences university in Uganda that offers an empowering education to equip young people with the skills, knowledge and passion required to transform their communities.
Read my interview with Dr. Takako Mino to learn about her inspiring story ⬇️
How did you first get interested in Uganda?
It was actually as an undergraduate student at Claremont McKenna College when I went to Uganda for the first time.
At this time, I was an international relations (IR) major — I was interested in post-conflict environments and development issues so this is the reason I went to Uganda.
I had come from more of a macro perspective in terms of international politics and economics. As I began to talk with the people of Uganda more, they believed that education would truly transform their lives.
Ugandans are some of the most enthusiastic people I’ve ever met in the world when it comes to education. They are willing to sacrifice so much to get an education. I was able to see this commitment and dedication firsthand and it was incredibly inspiring.
It was due to this experience in Uganda that I was able to find my passion for education. I wasn’t really thinking about education as a career pathway and at the Claremont Colleges, it’s not a degree that they offer.
So how did you go about pursuing education as a career after undergrad?
Later, I went back to Uganda to do an internship with an education NGO (non-governmental organization).
During this internship, I had the opportunity to teach debate to students at rural secondary schools in Uganda. In this moment I felt like I discovered my passion.
Then, I started looking at Claremont Graduate University (CGU) for a master’s in teacher education. I knew if I wanted to pursue a career in education, I didn’t want to come from a policy or IR perspective. I wanted true firsthand experience as a teacher working with kids in a classroom.
I went into CGU’s very intensive teacher education program. I worked as an English high school teacher during the week and then studied / took classes on the weekend.
Being a teacher is a really, really tough profession. There were moments where I really struggled and thought I wasn’t cut out to do this.
I learned that every student is capable. Every student can move and push forward.
It was very interesting to see the stark difference between the ways Ugandan students and American students approached education.
In Uganda, there are very few resources but a lot of enthusiasm and commitment.
In the US, there are a lot more resources and a lot more apathy.
I taught in the public high school system for 6 years. After this, I began thinking about the next steps. I now knew about education from the inside out as well as how to support different kinds of students.
I thought: What will I do to contribute back to Uganda now?
What issues do you see with education in Uganda that you seek to solve with Musizi University?
I went back to Uganda with a Pomona College student who was interning with us.
I noticed a problem with the university system: they wanted to educate as many people as they could — but at an extremely low-level that did not equip them with the necessary skills to succeed.
I saw potential for high-quality education — but this requires a lot of resources and expertise.
I also knew that an education cultivating the humanity in each student, rather than just teaching technical skills, was really important too.
In 2014, I began thinking philosophically about these issues. I thought of the liberal arts education as a key approach to solving these problems.
Now that you knew you wanted to start a liberal arts college in Uganda, what were your next steps towards actually building it?
I talked to all my mentors at the Claremont Colleges about my idea to start a liberal arts university in Uganda. They loved the idea but told me that I would need a PhD to make this a reality.
I decided that I wanted to get my PhD in education — with a focus on higher education — at CGU while working full-time so I didn’t lose this working experience.
I was also able to found an amazing dissertation advisor who started a university in Nevada. I learned so much from him.
My dissertation was looking at 3 case studies of start-up universities in Africa focused on cultivating humanity in every student.
From these three case studies, one of these hired me when I was done with my PhD. It was actually the first liberal arts college in Ghana!
I went there right after I finished my PhD so I could learn as much as I could from a successful example of a start-up liberal arts college.
What was the biggest challenge for you during this journey?
The biggest challenge was finding the right person to work with, my co-founder.
Starting this liberal arts college is a lifelong project. It’s a big commitment. Education is not a very profitable venture so we are not doing this for the money. We are doing it to make an impact.
So finding somebody with the right background who is motivated enough to dedicate their time, efforts and life to doing this was very difficult.
Finally, I found my co-founder during the pandemic in 2020. Her name is Elaine Alowo-Matovu and she is a Ugandan entrepreneur and lawyer.
We began talking about our vision and what we wanted to accomplish.
I knew I had to move to Uganda so I could physically be there to make things happen and understand the context again — especially because the pandemic changed the landscape much.
I moved to Uganda full-time in 2020. For me, the first year was all about re-learning life in Uganda again — learning the local language, talking to local students and parents, understanding the most pressing needs and issues that need to be addressed, etc.
My co-founder and I actually wrote a book chapter together about our philosophical vision for Musizi University — specifically, how we planned to incorporate indigenous knowledge and perspectives into the education.
After this, we created our business model and started building out what the program would look like. However, we are always pivoting!
So where are you development-wise right now?
The most recent development I can share with you is our one program we will be launching next year.
This program will be very entrepreneurial — people will come out of this program with both a professional degree and a business.
Uganda is one of the most entrepreneurial in the world. Everybody has a side hustle or a business — but many of these businesses are unstable and unscalable.
We want to create a rigorous, incubator-education program that is inspired by this passion for entrepreneurialism in Uganda.
We also recently launched our website: Musizi University!
Claremont McKenna has been extremely supportive the entire way — they have been a part of this entire journey so far.