Igbo women do love telling stories, but sentiment aside, Angelica Nwandu is worth a gazillion Naira. According to website valuation software, The jade room (TSR) is worth $23 million. We wager that may be a bit conservative, but the young woman is making cheddar.
Like Linda Ikeji, Angelica was faced with a struggle but of a different variety. While Linda had to navigate the treacherous terrain of a Nigerian start up society, Angelica’s struggle was her childhood tragedy.
After losing her mom to domestic violence, Angelica became an orphan in America’s brutal culture shock society. She narrates to Cosmopolitan
When I was 6 years old, I lost my mother at the hands of my father to domestic violence, and I entered the foster care system. Trying to cope with the pain and confusion of the situation led to me getting in trouble in school. I was angry all the time, and I was fighting a lot with other kids. When I was 12, I met one of my mentors, Zaid Gayle, from Peace for Kids. It’s a program that helps foster youth find creative outlets to let their anger out. I joined the poetry program because I didn’t want to do anything else like music or art. Writing became my therapy. I stopped fighting. I was doing well in school. I started to see myself as different than my circumstances.
I went to Loyola Marymount University on a full scholarship. I studied accounting and human resources. My biggest concern was that I had to support myself. Who else was going to help me?
After graduation in 2012, I was hired to work with a senior accountant at a motorcycle shop in Los Angeles. I did the daily grunt work of paperwork and filing taxes.
Whatever she faced she sure seemed to overcome as if by divine providence, or perhaps just sheer determination
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