Sons follow in parents’ footsteps
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Nigerian family keeps Ragin’ Cajun academic links close to heart</b>
LOUISIANA La. — Most families hint around that they’d like their children to attend their alma mater. They tell the stories of their glory days, wear the university’s colors, support the university teams and projects. And even across the Atlantic on another continent, in another country, Ragin’ Cajun pride lived on in Lagos, Nigeria, for the Amosu family.
“We don’t feel like we’re in America until we’re in Lafayette,” said Gladys Amosu.
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Marsha Sills
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In the late 1970s, Tunde and Gladys Amosu, both of Nigeria, attended UL Lafayette, then USL. During the course of their studies, they met, married, earned two degrees apiece and had two children.
Now, both of their sons have returned to their birthplace to continue the family tradition of earning their degrees at UL Lafayette.
This week, the whole family was back on campus as the Amosuses’ younger son, Dennis, returned to study business management at his parents’ alma mater. He’ll start summer school Monday.
“I’ve been talking about it,” Dennis Amosu said. “They had been telling me I’d end up here.”
His older brother, Ivan, is already here working toward his degree in mechanical engineering.
The couple weren’t the least bit surprised their sons decided upon UL Lafayette to further their education.
“They’ve been hearing about Lafayette and how we enjoyed the university,” said Tunde Amosu.
The couple sat on a bench in the university Student Union waiting for their younger son to finish up with his orientation session. Being back on campus has brought back the memories of their time here together, Gladys Amosu said.
She smiled and circled her index finger around the side of her head, “We’re reliving the student years, the youthful period. It makes you feel young.”
Her husband, seated beside her, nodded his head. His lips slowly parted into a smile.
“Coming back home,” he said.
The two hope their sons find the same connection to Lafayette.
The family has friends in Houston and has been to the United States to visit Texas frequently, but it’s Dennis Amosu’s first trip to back to the place of his birth since his parents returned to Nigeria in the early ’80s.
Dennis Amosu is settling into his dorm room and onto campus.
“It’s cool,” the 20-year-old shrugged. He looked around the lawn near Cypress Lake, the university’s mini-swamp habitat. “It’s conducive to what I’m here to do. The summer here is better than Houston. It’s hotter there. I think everything should be OK.”
For his mother, having both of her sons on familiar ground helps ease her mind.
“We can identify with where they are,” Gladys Amosu said. “When I call, and Ivan tells me ‘I’m on the way to the library,’ I can picture him walking down St. Mary to the library. It bridges the distance.”
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