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By Rita Okoye
For many students in Oregon State University, the most important lessons didn’t happen during lectures.
They occurred in hallway conversations, in long office hours, and in the reassuring voice of someone who understood not just the coursework, but the pressure of being first, different, or unheard. That someone is Chimdi Chikezie.
Oregon State University named Chimdi, a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant in the department of computer science, as one of the 2024 recipients of its Bryant-Morgan Black Excellence and Student Impact Scholarship. The announcement was made during the 2024 Black History Month event at the CH2M HILL Alumni Center in February 2024, where faculty, students, and staff came together to honor individuals shaping the university beyond the classroom.
Chimdi, whose work within the school has become a touchstone for inclusive mentorship, was celebrated for redefining what support looks like for underrepresented students in the tech industry. His influence, students say, is felt most powerfully not in lectures but in the quiet, consistent guidance he offers behind the scenes.
At Oregon State, Chimdi wears many hats: teaching/research assistant, advisor, innovator, but his most impactful role may be the one that goes unlisted. Students often find his office hours focus less on syntax and more on strategy, helping with school, life, and personal identity.
“I want them to leave with tools for life, not just for debugging,” Chimdi said in a post-award interview with the OSU College of Engineering newsletter. One of his recurring reminders to students: “Your worth isn’t tied to your GPA.”
Peers often call him the ‘unofficial advisor’ to underrepresented students, who credit him with helping them remain in the program,” said PhD student David Donish.
“Representation matters. But what Chimdi gives us is more than that. He shows us how to lead, how to question, how to push back when the system tells us to shrink.”
Chimdi’s years as a designer in Nigeria also inform his practical, grounded approach to mentorship. “The students see that I’ve lived the tension between creativity and constraint,” he said. “They trust that I get it.”
Beyond advising, he incorporates design justice into his teaching, encouraging students to examine the societal impacts of their code critically. He doesn’t just teach students how to build tech, he pushes them to decide why they’re building it, for whom, and what trade-offs they’re willing to make.
Several of Chikezie’s students have since gone on to lead accessibility audits for student platforms and present policy proposals on equitable tech practices at conferences. As one student phrased it, “He makes you brave in a field that can sometimes make you feel invisible.”
Through mentorship that blends lived experience, technical expertise, and cultural awareness, Chimdi Chikezie is not only transforming how technology is taught, but he is also reshaping how it should be taught.
