When I came to Cornell from Nigeria as a budding 19-year-old, I had not yet decided on a major. I was undecided. The reason was that, even then, as a teenager leaving my country for the first time, I knew that I would one day return to contribute to Nigeria’s progress.  

I have always been interested in history, law, and politics. As a high school student, I was doing research on minority representation in politics across the African union and on gender quotas. I wanted to continue studying issues that were emerging, relevant, and material to my country. It was for these reasons that I sought and discovered the College Scholar Program to design my own interdisciplinary major.

Today, I study data privacy laws around the world. I look at domestic laws in countries like the United States or regions like the European Union, and I compare them to the available laws in my own country. Doing this allows me to better advocate for the digital protection of people and their data. Working with my advisor Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, I have been able to choose classes like computation, AI ethics, comparative law, infrastructure policy, and more. In my classes I look for answers to my questions about the consequences of AI developments, including data privacy concerns, for countries in the Global South. These questions are particularly salient in our current society where the deployment of large language models is the global order of day (not just Africa).

The education at Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences really allows anybody to study anything. Because my major deals with the law, I have been permitted to take some classes in the Cornell Law School while being an undergraduate student. There are very few universities across the country where this is possible. I have even started a blog where I document my research and provide information to my readers about complex legal issues.

As an international student, I can definitely say that coming to Cornell opened my mind to what is possible in academia. The work I do is unique. I have received grants to attend conferences across the country and to travel to different African countries for research. All it takes is a dream and Cornell will work with you to make it happen. By the time I am ready to graduate, I will have skills and knowledge that are immediately transferable.