A SMILE AND A STYLE ALL HER OWN
MGBECHI ERONDU
S
mart, classy, accomplished, confident, and well-adjusted. That just about sums up Mgbechi Erondu. With a PA résumé as long as her arm—an honor roll student every term for four years, a poet and a published writer of fiction, senior representative to the Student Council, a member of the varsity soccer and track teams, a community service volunteer, a singer in the Gospel Choir, and an artist at the piano—one only wonders, “How in the world did she do it?” If you ask her, she admits to being a hard worker, but she’s also shy and a bit of a homebody. “The social life here was intimidating at first,” says the resident of Millstone, N.J., “but I think I improved.” Her younger sister, Chioma, “Chichi,” also a member of the Class of 2006, was with her throughout her four years. “It was nice to have someone who really knows me, especially when I first got here. When I didn’t want to speak, I could rely on Chichi. She’s the outgoing one, my mouthpiece,” Erondu laughs. A daughter of a mother who has a doctoral degree in pharmacy and a father who’s an endocrinologist/researcher, Erondu has two other younger siblings. She has journeyed three times to Nigeria, the country of her parents’ birth, to travel and visit relatives. A PA trip to South Africa last year to perform a leading role in the school play Things Fall Apart was a watershed event in Erondu’s young life. “To witness firsthand the trials that the people of South Africa have overcome, to observe, and to even be a small part of history in the making, had the greatest impact not only on my growth at Andover,” she says, “but also on my growth as a person, an intellectual, a young lady of Africa. “My cultural background has had a strong influence on my writing and my personality, as well as the activities I’ve chosen to participate in,” she notes. “I’m grateful to my parents for instilling in me the knowledge of who I am.” Her parents are fluent in Igbo, a language Erondu understands but, she says, is shy about speaking. Her summer plans included a job at Rutgers University’s Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences before heading to Princeton University to study psychology and creative writing. “After college, I hope to attend Harvard Medical School and eventually specialize in neurology,” she says. —PT
“My cultural background has had a strong influence on my writing and my personality, as well as the activities I’ve chosen to participate in.”