Community & Alumni Blog
CMU prepares newcomer for career as social worker
Odette Mukole’s great-grandfather was a Mennonite. When she arrived in Canada in 2000 after leaving the Congo with her three daughters, she remembered something her father told her: “Wherever you go in the world, you should look for the Mennonites. They will help you.”
Mukole initially arrived in Montreal, but soon moved with her daughters—who were 11, 9, and 7 at the time—to Calgary where she felt they would have a better opportunity to learn English.
The first thing Mukole did when she got off the bus in Calgary was ask someone working at the Greyhound station where she could find a Mennonite church.
Soon, Mukole had connected with a group of people who were helping her get settled in a new city. When she decided to move her family to Winnipeg in August 2004 so that she could study at Canadian Mennonite University (CMU), the church even put on a fundraiser to pay for Mukole’s moving costs.
“CMU was a good place to be—I always tell people that,” says Mukole, who graduated in 2007 with a B.A. in Social Science. “That’s my home, that’s my place. Everyone was so kind to me.”
The academic writing instructor who improved her communication skills, the library staff who were always willing to find the books she needed, the academic advisor who helped her make the decision to become a social worker—Mukole has countless stories about the way faculty and staff at CMU helped her during her studies.
She even recalls instances when she was studying when it was difficult to make ends meet and she wasn’t sure how she would feed her children. More than once, staff and faculty gave her food for her family.
One member of the maintenance staff, an avid hunter, gave her an entire deer. When Mukole mentioned that her back was hurting, the maintenance staffer suggested her bed might be the problem.
He and his wife showed up at Mukole’s house a few days later with a new mattress for her.
Mukole begins to cry when she remembers the story, one of a handful just like it that she has to tell.
“They don’t look at someone’s colour [at CMU]—they just do what it takes for someone to succeed in life.”
Today, Mukole works as a case coordinator at Family Dynamics, a not-for-profit, community-based agency in Winnipeg that helps newcomers to Canada adjust to life in a new country.
During a typical day, Mukole works with up to 12 clients. She meets them at their home or at her office, or takes them to appointments that they need to go to. Mukole helps clients with everything from understanding mail they have received, to going to doctor’s appointments with them, to helping them at the bank.
Mukole’s background puts her in a unique position to help clients at Family Dynamics.
“I really like what I’m doing, helping people and making sure they get what they need,” she says. “And when I talk to clients, it’s from my own experience.”
Mukole says that when she runs into people she met during her time at CMU, she always greets them with a hug.
She also recommends CMU to people she meets that are considering post-secondary education, including newcomers.
She knows that the Mennonites will help them.
“I had so many people supporting and encouraging me at CMU,” she says.
“I tell people, if I did it at CMU, they will do even better. Nothing can stop them from having a better education and a better future.”
Update (Wednesday, September 24, 2014): Mukole is one of four people who will receive CMU's 2014 Blazer Distinguished Alumni Award at the 2014 Fall Festival. The awards celebrate alumni who, through their lives, embody CMU’s values and mission of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society.
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