Mentee Stories

Colin Gan Cheong Kiat

Dr. Colin Gan Cheong Kiat

Colin is a Management and Training Consultant. He is a Hedge Fund Manager.
He is the Chief Information Officer for Acoustical Technologies Singapore
Pte Ltd. He is responsible for the strategic management and planning of
the company and new product development of medical devices using
ultrasonic technology. Relevant projects completed are new product
development for SAW (Surface Acoustic Wave) Biosensor and Marketing Plan
Audit for the company. He is an Advisor at ra+. He is a Risk Management
Advisor for AiKaigo Pte Ltd.

Thangboi Haokip

Dr. Thangboi Haokip

Thangboi Haokip arrived at the University of Minnesota in January 2009 on a special fellowship from the US State Department.  He was not only eager to develop his capacities as an educator but also as a follower of Christ.  A month after arriving in US he connected with Wilberforce International Institute and became an early program mentee.  With the help and mentoring of Wilberforce, he developed a plan to launch a K-10 Christian school for the poorest of the poor in the little village in NE India where he was from. Now, over ten years later, nearly 600 students are enrolled in two campuses and receiving a quality Christian education that multiplies the redemptive change started by Thangboi.

Abbel Joseph

Abbel Joseph

Abbel Joseph was born and grew up in Solino, a small community in Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. He is a former sponsored child of the sponsorship program of Compassion International. He majored in Business Management at Institut des Hautes Etudes Commerciales et Economiques in Haiti and then got his Master’s degree in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship at Moody Theological Seminary in Chicago.

Waihon-Liew

Waihon Liew

Waihon Liew is a Malaysian national, married with three children. He has masters in Theology and in Educational Leadership ThM and M Sc (education leadership). He currently works as an educator and life coach at Sejong Academy, St Paul, Minnesota which serves primarily Karen (Myanmar) refugees. He does mentoring, teaching, and discipleship (for the multiplication of disciple makers). Waihon also works training teachers in Malaysia. Through his collaboration with churches in Minnesota and Malaysia he is able to teach sports education and conduct educational projects with schools and communities in Malaysia through virtual learning (during covid-19) and 2-3 short trips each year.

Masango Matimura

Masango Matimura

Masango Matimura is a Zimbabwean who lives in the Manicaland (eastern) Province. He is an ordained Minister. He is the founding Director of Holistic Peace and Development Zimbabwe (HPDZ), a groundbreaking not-for-profit organization promoting reconciliation, spiritual and economic development in Zimbabwe. Masango was a 2010-2011 Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow, a professional development program sponsored by the US State Department. As a Humphrey Fellow he was based at the University of Minnesota Law School where he studied Human Rights and Law.

Margaret Mwale

Marageret Mwale

Margaret Mwale is Associate for Community Development and Constituent Relations with the Presbyterian Mission Agency Self-Development of People (SDOP) program. She brings grantee partners and SDOP together to move people and places out of poverty. Currently Margaret also serves on the Board of Directors of the Dougbe River School of Liberia (Africa) and Chairs its Strategic Planning Committee. She is currently working as a Fundraising Fellow with Wilberforce International Institute. She has previously served as Director of Admissions with the University of Indianapolis School of Physical Therapy. Margaret has dual master’s degrees in Economics (1994) and in Education (1996) from Eastern Illinois University. She earned a BA in Economics from Bluffton University (1993).

Eunice Salim

Eunice Salim

Eunice is a former classroom teacher who longs to see education be the primary transformative tool in realizing the best version of Indonesia’s future generation. With her people-oriented nature and organizational skills, Eunice is currently the Chief Networking Officer at Paideia Educational Solutions, a newly established educational initiative for human flourishing, as well as a part-time Curriculum Developer at Sekolah Kristen Calvin, a local Christian high school in Jakarta. Eunice enjoys being challenged in the professional environment, working alongside passionate people, and having opportunities to learn deeply towards a purposeful impact. In her spare time, she recharges through social interactions, journaling/hand-lettering, as well as mindless labor work. 

Ricardo Sandcroft

Ricardo Sandcroft

Ricardo Sandcroft of Jamaica is a Wilberforce mentee and a former Humphrey International Fellow at the University of Minnesota.  He and four other Christian former Humphrey International Fellows are working together to promote religious freedom and combat religious persecution especially against Christians in countries.

Before entering private practice, Ricardo worked both within the Jamaican court system and the Child Development Agency of Jamaica. Ricardo was a Master (Judge in Chambers) [Ag.], Child Law and Child Rights Specialist who spent many years advocating on behalf of and aiding vulnerable children in Jamaica.

David Widjaja

David Widjaja

David Widjaja (Indonesia) has a double BA in Computer Information Systems and Business Management (Marketing) from Calvin University. Currently he is working to build genuine workplace relationships despite the dehumanization of the workplace by bringing the gospel through demonstrating work excellence and living up my Christian faith in the workplace at Deloitte, San Francisco.  In his home country of Indonesia, he has created a community and platform called MyNeighbor (TetanggaKu) where we help people pivot their career to software related jobs (e.g. UI/UX, SDE, etc.). The aim of the app is to create a culture of genuine giving in Indonesia. He is active in FICA (Fellowship of Indonesian Christians in America) and his church.

Emanuela

Dr. Emmanuela Nyam

Since she became a Wilberforce mentee in 2014, Dr. Nyam, a graduate of Southern Baptist Seminary, has championed a focused effort to empower Cameroon’s pastors and parents to train and equip young people to become Christ’s disciples. Under the auspices of Children Treasuring Christ Cameroon, she writes children’s Christian education curricula as well as training churches so that Cameroon’s children develop a biblical worldview. Wilberforce staff have visited her at her base in Douala, Cameroon on two occasions in support of her work.

Martin and Stephanie Digler

Martin and Stephanie Digler

Our approach through this ministry is for pastoral/medical/teaching staff, elders, deacons, congregation, and students to be directed in a path that will transform their lives.  In doing so, they can effectively apply the biblical knowledge and understanding learned to their personal lives, which will in turn impact their communities and country as a whole.

Mentor Stories

Bill Rein

Bill Rein

William C. (Bill) Rein has been an attorney and healthcare administrator in Kansas and Wyoming for 43 years. His most recent positions were Superintendent of the Larned State Hospital in Larned, Kansas and Administrator of the Wyoming State Hospital in Evanston, Wyoming. Both hospitals have general psychiatric and criminal forensic programs. Prior to his work as a hospital administrator, Mr. Rein practiced mental health, hospital, and administrative law where he represented state agencies before district courts and legislative committees. His career includes work as the chief administrative law judge for a large health agency and State Commissioner of Behavioral Health. In 2018 he received the “Lifetime Achievement Award for improving Mental Health Services to Kansans.”

Michael Lovett

Michael Lovett

From 2008 through 2017, Dr. Lovett was superintendent of the White Bear Lake Public Schools in Minnesota, after serving as assistant superintendent with the Minnetonka Public Schools from 1988 to 2008. Between 1970 and 1988, he was a public-school teacher in New York, an on-site school and district administrator in Minnesota as well as serving in a leadership role at the Minnesota Department of Education.
Since retiring as superintendent in 2017 he has been passing his knowledge along at the graduate level to the next generation of leaders in education. Sr. Lovett currently serves as adjunct faculty at both the University of Minnesota and University of St. Thomas while providing both pro-bono and fee-based strategic leadership mentoring and management consulting to educational and nonprofit leaders through Lovett Leadership LLC, and is active on several nonprofit boards.