KOZHI SIDNEY MAKAI, PhD,
Young, Intelligent, Professor, Author, Motivational Speaker and Social Entrepreneur.
INTRODUCTION: It's September, you just entered your first class on the first day of graduate school. The Professor walks in, introduces himself, hands out a syllabus, and explains the course requirements, and his expectations from every student. The course is scheduled to last for one full semester, about 4-5 months. "There will be three tests during the course, in additional to a midterm and final examinations," he tells the class. Then he talks about the required text book and other reading materials and research project that needs to be done in order to successfully complete the course. "This is a very difficult course, a good number of students fail ... so I expect everyone to work a little harder than you did in undergraduate school", he adds. You stop by his office and ask if you could work at your own pace and finish the course in say, three weeks, "so I can move to another class this semester," you tell the Professor. "No one has ever done such a thing before," he answers. As you move to the next class and go through the same you routine, your brain keep telling you that you do not need 4-5 months to finish these classes, you can do each of them in a month and start another semester's work within this semester. In other words you want to do a year's' worth of work in one semester and finish your studies in less time than required. Insane? Yes, sounds insane. That's what everyone you talk to says. "You are insane!" But you know you are not, you are just determined. Yes, that's the word - determination. Welcome the world of Dr. Kozhi Sidney Makai! Born in March 1978 in Lusaka, Zambia, the last of nine children, he is "described as an old soul in a young body". He graduated with a bachelors degree in three and a half years, got his masters degree in a record eight months time and his PhD? Piece of cake, in eighteen months, without breaking a sweat! He defied the status quo. Conventional wisdom requires four years for an undergraduate degree, two years for a masters and another three or more years for a doctor of philosophy degree. "But why spend that much time when you can do the same work in less time?" he asks. AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS His life story is chronicled here. One may think that he came out of school with poor grades because of the lightning speed at which he completed his course requirements. Not so, he won all kinds of awards and recognitions.
The University wrote on their website, "Dr. Kozhi Makai, who earned a PhD in Applied Management and Decision Sciences in 2006 (at age 28), was awarded Warden University's Social Change Award for his dissertation, Culture and Leadership: A Comparison of Cultural Orientation and Leadership Preference Among College Students in Zambia and the United States" SELECTED MEDIA COVERAGE The Houston Chronicle, in their article dated May 11, 2006 written by its correspondent Valerie Sweeten under the heading "Professor Communicates his Inspiration / North Harris College teacher writes book" tells the life of a young man and his pursuit to make the American Dream a reality. That journey resulted in a highly acclaimed, award winning, must read book entitled: How Can I Come Up? The article tells how Kozhi whose father was a Zambia Police Officer and his mother a farmer came to America seeking education and serious about it. In the article Valerie quotes Severo Balason, Jr. the assistant dean at North Harris talking about Kozhi; "He had a plan to come to the United States to go to school." He began working and sweating his way through it. He is a very persistent, mature and intelligent individual. He had high aspirations that he combined with idealism and practicality. You definitely find gold in him." Makai first came to the U.S. when he was 19 to try out for a basketball scholarship at the University of Houston in 1997. At 6'3" tall Makai had played basketball on the Zambia Basketball National Team and thought the sport might be his only chance for an education.
"One of the reasons why I wanted to play basketball was because I couldn't afford college without a scholarship," Makai told Jamie Wood, a reporter for The North Star News, in an article entitled "From Student to Book Signing: The Story of Dr. Kozhi Makai." However, he came away from the tryouts without a scholarship and returned to Zambia. His parents later gave him a round trip ticket and $2,000 when a friend, who was sponsored by his uncle, invited him to stay with him Texas. When he first enrolled at North Harris, his goal was to become an architect. He had taken technical drawing in high school and helped draw plans for his family home. When he started taking speech classes, his focus changed. "I had always been a talker and had some training for the ministry before I left Zambia, but when I got into my first college speech course, I knew that was where I needed to be," he once told the The Observer Newspaper. LIFE IN AMERICA "So, how does a young man who grew up on the family farm in Zambia survive his first few weeks in Houston?" The Observer asked him. “It wasn’t at all scary,” Makai admitted. “In fact, for me it was a wonderful adventure. Coming here gave me the opportunity to see the world from a different angle and to look at life differently…and obviously; the pace of life here was very different. Yet, even after all this time, I’m still not sure if I am used to it.” Makai stay with his Zambian friend who invited him was brief and he found himself living here and there. It was at this time that Renee Eberly herad about Makai from the youth minister at Spring Tabernacle Church. The Eberly family became Makai's adopted parents 10 years ago. Although he worked two jobs at college and later at Target store he was still coming up short financially. But continued to motivate himself, while working on advancing himself. Overral he says, "It's been a great experience." EDUCATION After graduating from Harris Harris College with an Associates degree, he went on to Sam Houston State University where he graduated with a bachelors degree in Speech Communication and Psychology. He got a masters degree in Business Communication with Leadership and Influence specialization from Jones International University. He later went on for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Applied Management and Decision Science with Leadership and Organizational Change specialization from Walden University in 2006. AUTHOR, SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR, MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER, etc. Besides being active in church ministries like youth ministry and ministry, he is also actively involved in Phi Theta Kappa, the honors society for two year colleges as well as the Zambia Basketball Association. He is the author of three books and CEO of Kozhi Makai Worldwide, a Communications and Human Development Consultanting firm. His calendar is always full as he is in high demand as a speaker and its for this reason that he has put his career in academia on the shelf.
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