Leeving: Dumisa Moyo — Lee Clarion

"Leeving" is a series that highlights graduating seniors and their time and accomplishments at Lee, detailing the experiences had, knowledge they've gained, or the people they've met.

On a Tuesday morning I sat down with President of Pi Kappa Pi, Dumisa Moyo, a very familiar presence on this campus. Together we sought to capture his most shining and transformative moments throughout his academic career at Lee University.

Moyo grew up in Cleveland, Tennesse for many years. This would facilitate his first interaction with Lee.

“My parents were professors at Lee. My mom taught theology. My dad also taught theology here,” Moyo said. “My dad was the soccer coach of the women’s team before he became head coach of the men’s team.”

When his parents resigned from Lee, he moved to Florida. Soon after, his high school graduation loomed before him and it was time for Moyo to decide on his next step.

“To be honest I wanted to stay back in Florida, the land that transformed me, the place where I found my identity, the place where I found my confidence,” said Moyo.

He said he wanted to stay there to continue growing.

It was a tough call for Moyo. Having to uproot himself from fertile soil and begin again in a city he thought he left behind seemed daunting.

“I didn’t want to [go]. I felt that coming back to Lee would be a serious digression in my transformation, in my metamorphosis,” said Moyo.

Nevertheless, Moyo forged ahead. In the fall of 2013, Moyo embarked upon his collegiate academic career, in a place that was all too familiar to him.

“I showed up, and on the first day, I saw a sea of white, and it wasn’t snowing,” said Moyo. “I wanted to go back [to Florida] immediately.”

Moyo was momentarily deterred, alarmed by the lacking diversity he said, but he remained committed to his choice. He quickly settled down into life at Lee in pursuit of a B.S. in digital media studies with an emphasis in journalism.

Moyo said that he has always been interested in digital media since he was a child.

“We’d always go to Winterfest and be around cameras and people and lights and stages. I’d always see my dad running around with cameras on his shoulder and I was running cables,” Moyo said. “Digital media seemed right and journalism seemed right.”

Moyo quickly recognized that he made the right choice in attending Lee, and he found confirmation within his major.

“I’m satisfied with the program because the program allowed me to do what I wanted, teach myself and grow and become a self-starter," according to Moyo.

While he said the program gave him freedom, "the program is young and it must grow in order to compete with the market. Hopefully it does.”

The hope for the growth of the digital media program was a vision that Moyo felt compelled to actualize.

He spearheaded the establishment of iGnite News, a student-led video journalism effort, which has now become one of the mandatory practicums of the digital media major.

“We’ve been invited to [Washington,] DC [and the Voter's Value's Summit] twice by a Fox News analyst, he could have done that with any other Fox News program but he did that with us,” according to Moyo.

For Moyo, Lee no longer symbolized a step backwards in his personal growth, but served as an extension of the work that began in Florida.

“I love that I can be who I want to be here and not face opposition,” said Moyo. “Here you can be who you want to be.”

Unsatisfied with focusing solely on academics, Moyo immersed himself in student curricular life. He was tapped and soon became the president of Pi Kappa Pi, therein undertaking one of his most fulfilling challenges at Lee.

“Being president of Pi Kappa Pi and leading an organization of proud and strong men, when it was thought that we would no longer be a club and lose our charter, was incredible,” said Moyo.

The Pi Kappa Pi which Moyo inherited was fraught with discord and disunity.

“People undermined each other and cut at each other’s throats. No one listened to the other, no one respected the other,” said Moyo. “So when the club said we think you should be president, me, not wanting to do it, but doing it anyway and it paying off more than I could have ever imagined was insane.”

One of Moyo’s most impactful experiences arose from his semester abroad at Cambridge, where he was afforded the chance to travel extensively throughout Europe.

Climbing to the top of the Swiss Alps and standing atop Mount Jungfrau, looking beyond the horizon, was one of the highlights of the trip for Moyo.

"I’d never been that high, up in my life,” said Moyo. “I’m at the top of the world and I’m realizing, 'whoa, dude how did you get there?' I saw things I had never seen before in my life. I cried quite a bit.”

Europe marked one of the greatest highlights of Moyo’s career, however, like many shining moments, it was preceded by dark times.

“In junior year, I wanted to drop out of school completely. I went through a depression for the first time in my life, sinking to that level of darkness was unnerving for me,” said Moyo. “Your mind creates all these lies about you and you believe them.”

Fortunately, Moyo was exactly where he needed to be.

“The good things about being at Lee is that there are people I could reach out to,” said Moyo. “My roommates, maybe God put them in my life, were exactly what I needed for that time.”

In retrospect, Moyo realized that attending Lee was a good decision. He realized a level of confidence within himself which he never had before.

Lee gave him confidence. Confidence, according to Moyo, is belief in one's competence.

“Lee gave me that confidence in my competence,” said Moyo. “I can successfully look back at my career at this school and give credit to Lee because they gave credit to me.”

As the day of graduation approaches Moyo remains fixed on his goal: to change the way people tell stories.

“I just want to travel the world and use my gifts and skills to change and break rules. The traditional way of breaking the news, I think it’s primitive and archaic, people don’t trust the news,” said Moyo.

For the self-described “Afro-British-Jamaican-Scottish-Indian journalist-filmmaking-musician," the first step of his thousand mile journey will begin with displacement.

“Nothing excites me more than being dropped off in a foreign territory I know nothing of and conquering and overcoming it. I have dreams and aspirations of moving to Japan, Barcelona, and Switzerland and living there and learning the language,” said Moyo. “I want to travel, explore and become a co-creator with God.”