Theresa Uwaifo, known to her friends as Tess, first came to Southwest Virginia Community College in the spring of 2007 to inquire about training for the workers at the company for which she was employed. When she left, she was enrolled in classes and was fulfilling a promise made to her mother to one day become a nurse. “I didn’t originally come here for me; I came here for my employer. I talked with career counselor Sharon Peery and she asked me what I wanted to do. I told her I wanted to be a nurse, but I was afraid of taking math. She started talking to me and building my confidence and motivated me. I told her, “You believe in me, so I’ll give it a shot.”
Originally from Nigeria, Uwaifo attended primary and high school in her native country before moving to England to enroll in Pitman College. After graduation she began working in England. In 1973, while home in Nigeria on vacation, her boyfriend proposed. The couple was married in 1974 and Uwaifo took a job with the national Sports Commission in Nigeria where she spent most of her career as the personal assistant to the three Ministers of the Ministry of Sports. The government sent her to the Administrative Staff College of Public Administration in Nigeria. “When I graduated I had the opportunity to setup and head the protocol department. My goal was to project the image of the country in the sports world.”
Uwaifo left the Ministry of Sports to take a job with the French conglomerate CFAO as a public relations corporate manager. In 1997, the opportunity presented itself for Tess to fill out the forms to get a visa to come to the United States. With the encouragement of her husband and three children, she made the decision to fill out the forms to immigrate. “My husband told me, ‘The Lord is giving you citizenship for the U.S., there must be a reason.’ That was the first time my husband had asked me to do something for the family.”
After a childhood friend in the U.S. offered to sponsor her, Uwaifo approached her boss, “I asked for five months leave. I had intended to get the children settled and go back. The company gave me two years.” Uwaifo ended up staying in the U.S. for five years, not returning to Nigeria until her mother passed away.
“My mom was a fashion designer and a nurse before she quit work to take care of her family. I used to go with her and she encouraged me to become a nurse. But growing up, I didn’t realize I had that gift for healing. I promised my mother that one day when I retired I would go to nursing school.”
Uwaifo applied to the licensed practical nursing program, but she couldn’t get her transcripts from Nigeria in time to be accepted to the program. She then decided to go in a different direction. “I learned hairdressing from my aunt while I was in primary school. I decided to go to cosmetology school to honor her memory.”
“I believe that if I start something I need to finish it. If I break once I will always break.” In 2003, she become licensed as a cosmetologist and began working in the field.
In March of 2007, Uwaifo accepted a public relations job in Tazewell. That was how she was first introduced to Southwest. After enrolling in classes and leaving her job, Uwaifo traveled to Nigeria during the summer of 2007 to get her transcripts, still undecided about whether or not she was doing the right thing. “The Lord will decide if I come back to Tazewell. I don’t know His purpose. Why did I come to SVCC for someone else’s purpose and end up enrolled?” While in Nigeria, she made the decision to come back and pursue nursing at Southwest. She is currently taking the prerequisites she needs to apply to the associate degree in nursing program. “I am not letting go of the gifts God gave me,” she said.