{"id":462,"date":"2015-03-09T10:09:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T15:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/currents.winonastateu.com\/?p=462"},"modified":"2015-03-09T10:09:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T15:09:31","slug":"long-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/2015\/03\/09\/long-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Larry<\/a>

Larry Mbayu, Winona State University senior, is proud of where he came from, what he\u2019s done, and what he hopes to accomplish in the future.<\/p><\/div>\n


\nBy Joel Badzinski<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry Mbayu, WSU senior, is proud of where he came from, what he\u2019s done, and what he hopes to accomplish in the future. But Mbayu doesn\u2019t go out of his way to talk about his journey very often. He simply likes being known for who he is now. \u201cPeople can\u2019t tell the experiences I\u2019ve been through,\u201d Mbayu said. \u201cI don\u2019t really try to make it a topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mbayu, 23, was born and raised in the African nation of Cameroon. Mbayu was seven years old when his parents, Lawrence and Regine, decided to begin to move their family to the United States. Regine and daughter, LaToya, made the long journey to the U.S. first, while Lawrence remained in Africa with the boys, Larry and Lionel, who were sent to
\na boarding school about two hours from their hometown.<\/p>\n

Both boys have vague memories of witnessing violence during a period of civil unrest while they were at school. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t a great situation for younger kids, but my brother was able to take care of me throughout a lot of it,\u201d Mbayu said.<\/p>\n

It would be five years before the family was reunited, when the boys and their father immigrated to the U.S., settling in Oakdale, Minn., a Twin Cities suburb. Mbayu entered seventh grade that fall, while his older brother was in high school, so he was on his own trying to figure out a new school in a new country. \u201cIt was a pretty lonely experience at first,\u201d Mbayu recalled.<\/p>\n

With the help of his parents and siblings, Mbayu grew from an overwhelmed newcomer to a popular and successful student-athlete. Mbayu went out for the soccer team, because it was the sport he and Lionel grew up playing in Cameroon. Then his friends talked him into trying football. \u201cI had no idea what football was. I had never heard of it,\u201d Mbayu said. \u201cThen I started practicing a lot, trying to get better at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Education is Key<\/h2>\n

Winona State was the first school to talk seriously to Mbayu about playing football. It was just the spark he needed. \u201cFrom then on, I started hustling to get my grades up,\u201d Mbayu said. Mbayu earned
\na football scholarship and was a key starter as a cornerback in both his junior and senior years. Last January he was invited to play in the post-season Dream Bowl, a pro scouting showcase for small college players in Virginia Beach, Va. He is on schedule to graduate in December 2015, with a major in graphic design.<\/p>\n

Mbayu’s parents are college graduates, as are his sister and brother. He attributes his success to his close-knit family and the experiences they shared. \u201cThey are my motivation,\u201d Mbayu said. \u201cI see how hard they work and they\u2019ve set the way for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Joel Badzinski Larry Mbayu, WSU senior, is proud of where he came from, what he\u2019s done, and what he hopes to accomplish in the future. But Mbayu doesn\u2019t go out of his way to talk about his journey very often. He simply likes being known for who he is now. \u201cPeople can\u2019t tell the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[66,2],"tags":[170,156,160],"class_list":["post-462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletic-news","category-wsu-magazine","tag-larry-mbayu","tag-warriors","tag-wsu-football"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2015\/03\/Long_Journey.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7PQMT-7s","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.winona.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}