‘I’ve always been about working to be a better me’

By Patty Huston-Holm

Most would give up during a 10-year journey towards a master’s degree or at the very least become bored with the dissertation topic. 

Prisca Adaeze Nenger didn’t and isn’t. 

Nenger, a 2025 Uganda Christian University (UCU) School of Journalism, Media and Communication graduate with a Master of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies, says her nearly 200-page paper is just as relevant today as in 2015 when she began her study on how media ownership impacts journalists’ work. And while her research concentration was on electronic media in Mbale, Uganda, she asserts that the findings are applicable to all mass media channels worldwide. 

Prisca Adaeze Nenger and her husband, Jerome Aondongu Nenger

“The United States has been a model of press freedom, but how stories are presented today is influenced by who owns the media house and even the government,” Nenger said. “This is the same to a different degree for journalists in East Africa.”

Speaking from the Binghamton, New York, home that she shares with her husband, Jerome Aondongu Nenger Esq., and two children, Hadassah, 8, and Hephzibah, 2, Prisca Adaeze Nenger imparted her news media insights from her research and practical experience living in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and, since 2020, the USA. 

Nenger’s learning, teaching and application of journalism, media and communications began in 2004 and, with her recent post-graduate degree from UCU, will continue. She hopes to persist in the career field by pursuing PhD studies concentrated on communication, ethics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Binghamton University.

“I’ve always been about working to be a better me,” she said. 

Nenger, 41, cites applied education, Christianity and upbringing as one of eight children in the southwestern Nigerian city of Lagos as three fundamentals guiding her life. 

Upbringing
Among the lessons from her parents were “work hard, and don’t quit,” she recalled. 

This application was especially relevant as she persevered to complete her post-graduate degree at UCU.  She began defending her dissertation in 2017 – only to graduate in October 2025. 

Barriers included Uganda shutdowns due to the Covid pandemic; UCU supervisor changes; challenges of balancing motherhood, work and education; and Nenger’s relocations within East Africa, and eventually to the United States – from Buffalo and then to Binghamton, New York. 

The family’s move to New York State from Kampala, Uganda – and their first experience with winter’s snowy weather – was because of an educational opportunity for her husband, a lawyer from Nigeria. Together, the Nengers serve as Policy Council members for the Head Start children’s education program in the area where they reside. 

“What would I tell my children if I didn’t finish?” Nenger asked rhetorically. “Many students quit during that time, especially with frustration over research revisions and supervisor re-assignment, but I was determined not to be one of them.”

Nenger was not able to travel for her eventual graduation this year, but from her bedroom in Binghamton watched the October 24 ceremony on-line. The seven-hour time difference between Uganda and the state of New York had Nenger listening from 12:30 a.m. to 4 a.m.  

A fellow graduate from the same master’s program, Frederick Senkeeto, who also lives in the United States, attended the ceremony and, with the facilitation of Dickson Tumuramye of UCU’s Honors College, helped bring Nenger’s documents back to the United States for her.

“I’m looking at them now,” Nenger said on November 4. “I can see my name in the program, and I’m laughing. It took a while to get this degree…but I’m here. Thank God.”

Christianity
While the current president of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and much of the Nigerian population is Muslim, Nenger is Christian. 

Nenger, who grew up in the Anglican denomination, is one of the few international students from Nigeria who chose UCU for its reputation of quality academics, as well as its Christian emphasis. While preferring not to generalize, she notices that some “serve God” sporadically instead of “trusting Him for everything.”

As she was directed since childhood, she leads her two children according to Proverbs 22:6, which emphasizes the importance of parents starting “children on the way they should go,” because “even when they are old, they will not turn from it.”

She uses I Timothy 4:7-8 to encourage believers to exercise themselves “for godliness…for present life and life to come.”

“I pray for people to turn their hearts to God,” she said. 

Education
In addition to studies at UCU, Nenger’s post-secondary education in mass communications and digital media occurred at Nigeria’s Federal Polytechnic, Oko, and Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, respectively. 

Before and during enrollment at UCU, she applied her skills at Anambra Broadcasting Services; the National Broadcasting Commission; Living Jesus Ministries, Inc.; Continental Broadcasting Services in Nigeria; Livingstone International University and Kampala International University in Uganda; and Kampala International University in Tanzania.

For the past 10 years, she dusted and fine-tuned her master’s dissertation with the sometimes-painful understanding of how journalists struggle to expose corruption and tell the truth in the midst of government and private control of their print, radio and TV channels. 

“Journalists go through a lot,” Nenger said. “Even with a quality education, they learn on the job. They do self-censorship to avoid losing their jobs. . . They learn that it’s more than telling the news – that it’s a business.”

In the course of her research, Nenger heard stories of reporter physical, psychological and sexual abuse. One such story she recalled was about a female journalist from Uganda and a male journalist from Kenya who were mistreated in Tanzania this past summer. Members of the press are hard-pressed to follow their career’s established codes of ethics that are part of a university curriculum when working in a media-house silencing environment. 

“In school, we learn that the media – the journalists and editors – should set the news agenda,” she said. “But today, the media owners set the agenda owing to their business and/or political interests; that’s not how it’s supposed to be.”

To anyone struggling with finishing studies or a professional task, she insists “never giving up” is the best choice. 

“Challenges are building blocks to growth and development,” Nenger said. Her longer-than-planned journey to her master’s degree yielded not just a credential but one with Excellent CGPA, which is equivalent to a First Class.

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