Separated by Oceans, United by Purpose and Passion
Ten years after their graduation from Dickinson, Marie-Noelle Nwokolo 16 (left) and Madonna Enwe '16 reconnected on campus in July. Both aim to improve lives in Africa.
Two global change-makers reconnect in Carlisle
by MaryAlice Bitts-Jackson
Two Dickinson friends living on different continents met up on campus this summer to catch up, reminisce and celebrate each other’s work to improve lives in underdeveloped nations.
Marie-Noelle Nwokolo ’16, a former international business & management major, works on economic development and policy in African countries. Madonna Enwe ’16, who studied neuroscience at Dickinson, is a physician completing a neonatal-care fellowship in Baltimore who’s developing educational programs for parents of high-risk children in Tanzania. Together, they represent distinct yet interconnecting approaches to helping to better the world.
Driven to help
They met during a bustling and eventful year in each of their lives. Nwokolo had just returned to Carlisle from studying abroad in Norwich, England. Enwe, who’d transferred to Dickinson from Montgomery County Community College, was in the second half of her ambitious academic plan—to complete all of her neuroscience major credits in just four semesters.
Both were highly involved on campus. Both were international students. Nwokolo had grown up in Ghana, and Enwe, in Cameroon. Both were driven to effect positive change. They were fast friends.
While at Dickinson, Nwokolo interned at Diamond6 Leadership & Strategy and participated in the Harvard Business School’s Africa Business Conference. Partnering with Dickinson staff, she organized campus screenings of the film Poverty Inc. with accompanying student-led panel discussions. This garnered her the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium Student Sustainability Champion Award. Enwe was a creative-writing contest winner and Forney P. George Scholar who took part in a summer neuroscience program at the University of Vermont Medical School and set her sights on a career in pediatric neurology. During her junior year, she was tapped for Wheel and Chain and sparked a major campus fundraising effort to benefit victims of a devastating earthquake in Nepal.
International lives
After graduation, Nwokolo earned a master’s in development management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, taking part in the university’s program for African leadership. She worked in a think tank and then joined a presidential delivery unit, traveling to African nations to develop and reform numerous government projects focused on growing and diversifying economic activity, attracting investment for jobs and growth.
“It’s like an extreme Rubik’s Cube—any adjustment in one area inevitably affects many others, often across multiple layers. Nothing shifts in isolation," explained Nwokolo, who now facilitates economic-development policy programs and knowledge exchange through the G20 Compact with Africa initiative.
Enwe went to D.C. postgraduation, working with refugees and asylum-seekers through the D.C. Service Corps. Then came med school at the Ohio State University, where she shifted her focus to neonatal care. While serving a residency in Chicago, she traveled to Tanzania through a global-health program. There, she witnessed the vast need within her field.
“Most preemies in developing countries don’t survive past 3 or 4 years of age. It’s the leading cause of death of children,” she explains.
Now, Enwe’s completing a three-year neonatal fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University and working with doctors in the same Tanzania hospital she visited as a resident, creating an educational program for parents of preemies. During the final year of her fellowship, she’ll return to Tanzania to implement the program, which provides parents with the skills and knowledge to care effectively for their high-risk children.
Joyful reunion
When Nwokolo traveled to the U.S. in July, the two friends made sure to reconnect. Together on campus, they reminisced about people who helped guide their paths: Emeritus Professor of Psychology Teresa Barber, who encouraged and advised Enwe as she completed all of her major courses in only two years; Office of Religious Life staff who partnered with Enwe to fundraise; Associate Professor of Economics Shamma Alam, whose class strengthened Nwokolo’s theoretical grounding in international development; Visiting Professor of Security Studies Jeff McCausland, Nwokolo’s internship advisor, whom she visited while in town.
“I was really well supported here, and it opened up so many doors for me,” says Enwe.
“My professors always made time for me. Dickinson is a big part of the reason why I am where I am today,” Nwokolo agreed.
The women also expressed gratitude for the friendship that still binds them, wherever they are in the world. And they resolved not to let too much time go by before their next meeting—perhaps in Tanzania. “We’ll coordinate our schedules,” Enwe says.
TAKE THE NEXT STEPS
Published August 27, 2025