HomepageThe U-Imagine Center for Integrative and Entrepreneurial StudiesMVP Award to Christian N’daye

MVP Award to Christian N’daye

To kick off the New Year, the U-Imagine Center wanted to take a moment and recognize Ursinus College senior, Christian Ndaye. Christian has been a consistent supporter of the Center’s initiatives by participating in nearly all of our annual events, programs, and workshops over his four-year career. Through utilizing the Center’s interdisciplinary and experiential resources, Christian has shown grit, passion, and determination to succeed in his professional life. As a result, Christian will become the first recipient of the U-Imagine Center’s Most Valuable Person (MVP) Award.

Christian is a senior Computer Science major with a double minor in Mathematics and French. He is a leader for the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship organization, an employee at Tech Support, and a member for both the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and American Statistical Association (ASA).

After graduation, he plans on pursing a master’s degree in computer science and furthering his entrepreneurial career with his idea “The Bridge” which aims to end homelessness and poverty. Since the beginning of his undergraduate career here at Ursinus, Christian has always been outspoken for his passion to end impoverished homelessness. Christian himself was exposed to the harsh conditions driven by homelessness in his refugee country, Nairobi, Kenya. While living in an impoverished community called Kibera, Christian experienced extreme hunger and poverty for 5 years. At 17, Christian was granted refugee status in the United States and was provided with opportunities to sustainably avoid his previous living situation. Christians own experience evolved into a passion toward creating lasting change for the millions of people impacted by extreme poverty, homelessness, and hunger around the world. With hard work and determination, Christian turned his passionate ideas into a concrete business plan. His project, named “The Bridge” aims to provide the homeless with sustainable housing and vocational resources with their provided programs and services.

The Bridge will serve as a ‘front-end, back-end’ organization, meaning it has both non-profit and for-profit management methods. The Bridge will collaborate with organizations, charitable foundations, and interested clients to ensure financially stability. Then, develop the infrastructure to support its various services, recruit compassionate employees, and execute their mission by reaching as many people as possible. Christian believes the recurring cycle of these processes will not only help people materially, but will “restore the values of humanity to help us live as a family by caring for one another, treating others with respect, dignity, and kindness.” Truly inspiring, Christian!

Christian said what he appreciated most about the U-Imagine Center was that it provides students with the opportunity to present ideas by participating in competitions and bringing ideas into actionable steps. Throughout his own experience with The Bridge, Christian understands how important funding is to making ideas become reality and commends our Center for connecting to students with various funding pathways. Christian mentioned how much the Center’s programs helped him refine his ability to influence during pitch presentations, which is crucial to his entrepreneurial endeavors. He accredits the Center for providing him with the presentation skills needed to pass his Computer Science course as well as giving important feedback about non-profit partnership for The Bridges pitch presentation. He believes that current Ursinus students should utilize the Center’s resources because it will leverage their ability to pursue their passion with ease, build a supporting network, and prepare themselves for “real-world” experiences, just as it has done for him.

Please join us in congratulating Christian for his dedication toward making a resounding impact both on and off campus. Upon graduation, Christian plans to pitch his business model to organizations in order to receive the appropriate backing and funding. He will also use his academic knowledge in computer science to personally create the appropriate technological infrastructure and servers for The Bridge and hopes to gain even more experience in computer programming in graduate school. We are extremely proud to help be a part of your experience on campus, and appreciate your profound dedication to change the world. Christian, we are looking forward to seeing what new ideas for The Bridge you bring to the Center for your last semester, and we wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.

The U-Imagine Center for Integrative and Entrepreneurial Studies Home