Fulbright Scholar Donates Sculpture to Promote Reading Culture at the University of Ibadan

An African American sculptor, Prof. Albert Lavergne, a dynamic Fulbright scholar with a special skill in building steel sculptures is presently at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State where he built a large sculpture that promotes reading culture in Nigerian’s homes.  Inspired by the many students and teachers that he met in Ibadan, he built the sculpture in about six months.  Dr. Lavergne explained that through his sculpture he wanted to express that reading provides a foundation for learning and plays a fundamental role in promoting children's critical and imaginative thinking and their intellectual and emotional development. 

Fulbright Research Connects Primates and People

 Living in a remote rainforest camp, spending days sifting through monkey feces may seem daunting for some, but for Fulbright scholar Sagan Friant, it’s beginning to feel normal.

Friant, a PhD student of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, returned to the wilderness of Cross River State for the fourth time this March to embark on a 9-month research project with the Center for Education, Research and Conservation of Primates and Nature (CERCOPAN), a non-governmental organization focusing on the conservation and rehabilitation of primates.Friant is researching how changes in the environment impact wildlife health, and how, in turn, this affects human health and the relationships between wildlife and nearby human communities.

Fulbright Scholar Inspires and Connects in Ife

For American sculptor Al LaVergne, coming to Nigeria as a Fulbright scholar has been a homecoming to a home he never knew he had.

LaVergne, who is currently putting finishing touches on a 14-foot steel sculpture called “The Gift” at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, described his experience in Nigeria so far as a year of new friendships, dialogue and inspiration.

As an African American from a large family, he had always felt a “strong connection on some level” to Africa.

He was inspired to travel to Nigeria after meeting prominent Yoruba woodcarver Lamidi Fakeye, who visited LaVergne at Western Michigan University, where LaVergne teaches, and spoke with him about the possibility of study in Nigeria. Though Fakeye passed away in 2009, LaVergne continued with these plans and arrived in Ife in January.