Simon Ndely vividly remembers when his connection to the University of Minnesota started. It was 1998 and his mother, Elizabeth Gobina (B.S. ’99), was graduating from the School of Dentistry with a degree in dental hygiene. Simon was still in elementary school, but sitting in Northrop Auditorium and watching his mom walk across the stage made a huge impression on him. “I couldn’t really appreciate what the accomplishment meant, but I knew it was an accomplishment,” he says, noting the commitment it took her to get a degree while also raising three children. “That memory is always something that stuck with me. And it was always something that I aspired to do.”
To say Simon (B.S. ’13, M.D. ’18) made good on that aspiration is an understatement: He would go on to attend the U of M for 13 consecutive years, first as an undergraduate, then as a medical student, and finally as a resident specializing in pediatrics.
In fact, the U of M has become a cherished tradition for several members of the extended Ndely family.
The Ndely connection to the U of M started in 1975, when Stephen Ndely moved to the United States from Limbe, Cameroon. Attending college was a bedrock value in his family, but at the time, there was only one university in his home country. Instruction was in both French and English, and Ndely (B.C.E. ’82) says his French proficiency wasn’t robust enough for him pursue his studies in it. He was young and adventurous and already had several cousins studying at American universities, so the U.S. was a natural choice. Ndely initially chose the University of Wisconsin Superior because the brochures showed a small campus on the shores of a beautiful lake. At the urging of his father, who had studied in England, Stephen bought cold-weather clothes. But nothing prepared him for the experience of the Lake Superior wind freezing him to the bone as he walked the mile between his dorm and the main campus.
Homesick and struggling, Stephen visited high school friends from Cameroon who were studying at the University of Minnesota. Intrigued, he spent the following summer in the Twin Cities, where he took a few classes at the U of M. He liked the experience so much that he applied to transfer, starting that fall as a premed student focusing on chemistry.
Stephen threw himself into campus life, joining the Minnesota International Students Association and starting the Minnesota chapter of the Cameroon Students Association, eventually becoming the organization’s president. “It was a huge achievement to leave Cameroon and go to the USA and be admitted,” he says over a Zoom call where he is dressed in maroon and gold Gopher logo wear. “It was something that I wanted to experience, and it met everything that I wanted to do, because I love different cultures.” He met students from Iran, Iraq, and other countries across the globe. “I told people it was like touring the world without going to different places.” His boundless enthusiasm for the U of M even persuaded his brother, Samuel (B.A. ’85), to join him in Minnesota.
