Profile Draft

Before Ngomboko Muzinga, also known as Lawrence, worked at Morningside, he was managing a bank. Located in Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa is where he lived. As the manager, Muzinga would teach his clients how to manage their money. Muzinga wanted to help everyone. He would venture out to find his clients and talk to them about business, opening an account and the benefits. Muzinga was not like the other bankers and his friends and family told him that. Everyone saw Muzinga as a professor, not a bank manager. He believed them. He believed them so much he that he got a scholarship to study in the United States. Thus, began his journey to becoming the professor that he is today.

Starting from the beginning, Little Muzinga fell into the path of excellence. When he was of age, his parents sent him off to boarding school that was 2 hours away from home. He made the best of it as he states it was the start to learning to be a man. The learning worked because he continued to pursue the highest grade in his education. Aiming for the best. He soon learned that he wasn’t the only one with a smart brain.

As a junior in college, Muzinga had a friend who had a younger sister. And to Muzinga’s eyes, he saw her as a little sister too. There was not love interest, at least right away. The girl was in high school when she received the highest grade in the entire country. Muzinga started to think of her differently, especially when she got the highest grade on an exam of that section. Each section exam was focused on a subject, for example economics. She did very well and became a star to the other students. Because of her smarts, Muzinga knew that he wanted to marry her. That is what he did, on June 2nd, 1990.

Everything was going good for them. Around this time was when Muzinga was working at the bank and to which he got told to pursue teaching. This worked out well as his wife decided to further her education in the United States. Muzinga soon followed once he received his scholarship.

They both ended up at the University of Illinois. Muzinga could have gone anywhere, but he knew of students from back home that went there. While there, he got a scholarship to teach African languages in the linguistic department. He called upon the students to help him determine an American that he can be called as, because his African name is hard for others to say. Muzinga asked, “I asked my students what is the closest American name to Laurent?” Laurent is a name in French equivalent to his African name. The students came up with two options, “Larry” or “Lawrence”. The decision was quick as an African American student straight up told him, ‘Hey, Muzinga don’t take Larry, Larry is for old white man.’. There it was, the day Lawrence was officially born.

Later, he got his PhD, but to also point out, Muzinga was rewarded three times their graduate assistant of the year: 2000, 2001, 2002. The reason why it is important is because Muzinga said, “no one has received that award twice.” Further proving his talent in mastering his education and achieving great prestige in the work he does. He has proof too, as his plaques hang on the wall in his office.

After graduating, Muzinga and his wife moved to Platteville, Wisconsin. From there, he began working as a Professor at the University of Dubuque. His hard work continues to pay off because he received awards for teacher of the year, twice. Working roughly 15 years in Dubuque; Muzinga decided for a change. This is when Morningside College comes in.

This is his 3rd year at Morningside College. His wife also works there too, in the Agriculture department in Buhler Rolfs. She goes by Annie.

Everything is going well for Muzinga. Underneath all the jokes and stylish looks he presents himself as everyday when he teaches, is a respectful man then to inspire. Jodie Nieman, the Business Department’s Housekeeper had this to say about Muzinga, “he is a real nice guy, real friendly.” She goes on to when he first started working that he willingly introduced himself first. The amount of respect he expresses to his colleagues and students is pleasant. Giuseppe Del Rio Broggi, a sophomore in Muzinga’s class, said, “Pretty good teacher. Really takes care of you and understands things.”

News Release: Oldest polar bear at Midland Zoo dies

Midland Zoo’s oldest polar bear, Homer, passes away at the age of 16 years. Polar bears have thrived at the zoo since 1985 because of the engaging natural exhibits. An investigation is being conducted on Homer’s recent death. Zoo director Chris Bacon states that everyone at the zoo is doing everything to determine the bears death. The zoo’s goal is the animal welfare and preservation of their species. It will take weeks before the results come in.

Profile Anecdote

Long ago there was a boy from Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. The boy is named Ngomboko. He was a very good student throughout his school years. He got the good grades, he ended up with a decent job, and he got to marry the perfect woman. What more can a man ask for? Well, for Ngomboko, living in Africa just wasn’t enough. Everything changed once he moved to America and it is for the better. He now has a purpose; teaching students to aim for success. His name was Ngomboko, still is actually, but that isn’t what he gets called here in America. Here, people call him Lawrence.   

In class: Speech story

A Swedish climate activist, 16-year-old Greta Thunberg presents a speech to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in NYC.

The world leaders of today are leaving behind more CO2. The younger generations are gonna have a hand full of work to do due to the lack of changes the leaders are not doing.

The world leaders have set this up for younger generations to fail when its their time to deal with the issue.

The speech focused on the climate issues and the dying result of the ecosystems and people. And the younger generations have to worry about their future at this time of age because the leaders are not doing anything about it.

Stripping students away from education and into real world because being at a 50% risk isn’t acceptable as mentioned by Thunberg.

“We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you.” Thunberg states with much emotion.

Thunberg finishes on the idea of change, “change is coming, whether you like it or not.”

Reflection of Article #1

  1. Which part of the process for paper #1 did you put the most effort into? Which part of the process do you wish you had spent more time on?
  2. What was the most difficult part of writing this paper?
  3. What was the biggest problem you encountered in writing this paper, and how successful were you in solving that problem?

Answer for 1. I spent a lot of time in the drafting process; finding articles relating to the photography subject and how to put it in an article format. After getting the draft back and seeing and being told the errors, I started over at the beginning again and searched for a new photography based article. This time the subject matter had to be more specific. I learned that the instructions for this assignment had me confused and led me on the wrong path. An example or clearer instructions would have been helpful for me to have done better from the start. I wish that I could redo the drafting process with the knowledge that I know now and the finishing product of the article could have been prepared better.

Answer for 2. The most difficult part about writing this paper was taking the information from the different articles and rewriting them into one. Another situation is finding what is important information and the least important and how to present it in the article when thinking about the inverted pyramid concept.

Answer for 3. The biggest problem was the early confusion on how to properly make this article. After straightening out the assignment, it wasn’t as hard. The minor issues were selecting the right quotes and how to transition them in the article.