Eric Edi
Eric Edi, Ph. D. Lecturer, Thomas Jefferson University- East Falls Campus
+ AFRICOM Chief Operating Officer (C.O.O)
Nomination:
Nominated by Ben Goebel: Eric is the Director of AFRICOM and also a Faculty professor at Jefferson.
About Eric:
Eric is from Cote D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) and came to the United States in 2000 for the first time as a Fulbright Scholar at Temple University. Twenty years later, he stands as an important figure in the immigrant community, especially in the African and Caribbean communities. Similarly to most immigrants, when Eric came to the U.S., it was hard to move so far from everything he knew. It was the first time he traveled far from home for an extended period of time. Through these personal experiences and hearing about others’, he garnered hope to build stronger communities. He became involved in different community organizations, one being the Cote D’Ivoire Association of the Delaware Valley, of which he worked with for 10 years. Since then, he moved on to lead AFRICOM, the coalition of African and Caribbean communities of Philadelphia.
When he’s not actively working with his community, Eric is a professor at Jefferson University, where he teaches Human Rights and Global Politics. His teaching goals are not to just relay the information, but to ensure they deeply understand their rights, the rights of others, and how they can get involved outside of school and advocate for those rights to be respected.
His best advice to immigrants is to press on. Immigration is hope, and hope is enough to march on everyday. Wherever they go, immigrants encounter a lot of barriers. But they should press on. Paradise is what we make of it. Wherever we are, we can build our own paradise. And this is why he will tell you that he is “stupidly optimistic”.
Eric loves that we are taking back the word Genius to celebrate everyday people. We are not using the word to only define people such as Steve Jobs, but those who impact the life of others on the ground, with their advocacy, their art, and their hope. Everyone can become a genius if they press on.
Article by I Belong Philly. Created by Ben Goebel, Cristina Zanoni, and Maria Gonzalez.
Quotes from Eric:
"You got to press on. You have to press on why, if it is from the side of an immigrant. I gave this word and I want to claim it to be mine. If people want to quote it: immigration is hope. Immigration is hope, and hope is that few that all of us need in here to match on every day.”
"Usually when people hear about an everyday genius, they are thinking about maybe… Steve Jobs. What is good about this group and its intent is that we are building another way of understanding geniuses. Meaning, how we uplift people, how our work is helping individuals, regardless of their level, regardless of their income status."