Sheila Nabanja
From one life-changing opportunity to a University that will create thousands more
When Sheila Nabanja (AC ‘02), looks back on her journey from a childhood in Kampala to leading engineering teams at Apple and Cruise, she sees a story transformed by a single long odds opportunity. Today, that story is woven into the mission of Musizi University, a new African-centered institution preparing ethical, entrepreneurial leaders for Uganda and beyond. Together, Sheila’s journey and Musizi’s vision reveal what becomes possible when education, purpose and opportunity meet.
Sheila was raised in Kampala by a mother who believed fiercely in the power of education. As a single parent of five, her mother stretched limited resources to ensure her children attended strong schools, including a Catholic boarding school. It was there that Sheila met her classmate Elaine, who would later found Musizi University.
"At seventeen, I applied for one of only four scholarships available across Uganda to attend UWC. The odds were daunting. School fees at home were often paid in instalments as my mother worked tirelessly to keep me in school. Her dreams for us were bigger than her wallet, yet against all expectations, I earned the scholarship to attend UWC Atlantic College and that one yes changed everything for me."
At AC, she would discover that the entire campus was a classroom. Community wasn’t an add-on; it was the curriculum. Sheila learned this immediately – living with three other young women, each from a different country, each carrying her own history, questions and dreams. Those daily moments of conversation, misunderstanding, laughter, negotiation and shared discovery became her first real lessons in global citizenship.
Service was equally central. Sheila still smiles when she remembers signing up for the lifeguard service before she even knew how to swim. It was a bold – perhaps naïve – choice, but she had coaches who invested in her, pushed her and believed in her capacity to grow.
From AC, Sheila went on to Macalester College and later to MIT for graduate work in electrical engineering. Her career has taken her to the forefront of innovation in consumer electronics and autonomous driving, where she has led the design and scale-up of solutions built for the many, not the few. She imagined a world where transportation barriers no longer exist, she built strong teams with vulnerability and empathy, and prioritised experimentation, data and sustainable impact. Throughout her career, she has also created space for minorities like herself to take risks, learn and claim their place in spaces that were not built for them.
So when Elaine shared her vision of building a new university in Uganda – one rooted in ethical leadership, critical thinking, entrepreneurship and African-centered excellence – Sheila felt the call immediately. Musizi represented what she wished had existed when she was 17: a world-class institution at home, eliminating the barriers that force young people to leave in order to rise. It also aligned with the values of ethics, service and innovation that define her purpose. Today, those values guide her work as Executive Director of the US-based Musizi University Foundation, helping open doors for the next generation.
The University welcomes its first class of 50 students in 2026, and is designed to tackle a system where 65% of graduates are unprepared for work, Musizi offers nationally aligned programmes in Entrepreneurship, Software Engineering and Health Data Science, grounded in ethics, entrepreneurial and real-world problem-solving. For Sheila, supporting Musizi is as personal as it is urgent.
For Sheila, supporting Musizi is as personal as it is urgent. “The next generation of innovators, founders and leaders will come from Africa. We have to prepare them,” she says.
Her AC experiences have continued to shape her – teaching her to step toward challenges, lean into curiosity and recognise that growth happens in community. They are proof that young people, when given opportunity and support, can rise far beyond what their circumstances predict. These values now guide her work in building an institution grounded in empathy, global and domestic awareness and a collective responsibility to transform communities in Africa, by Africans.
For years, I asked myself: What do I bring to the world that is uniquely and unmistakably Sheila? The answer, I realised, is the miracle of my own long-odds story. My journey began with one opportunity that changed everything, now Musizi University exists to create thousands more.
