Learning without Borders
NC State alum shares education with dignity, one family at a time.
By Susanna Klingenberg
Every morning in Kampala, Uganda, Alex Petercuskie ’13, ’16 MA wakes up under mosquito netting. She boils water for a shower and grabs a breakfast mandazi — fried bread — from a street vendor on the way to her day job as a teacher. “Will the school have power today?” she wonders. It’s never a sure bet. But one thing for Petercuskie is certain: Uganda is where she’s meant to be, serving vulnerable children and young mothers through her nonprofit, Lift One Kin.
Her passion for service — especially service to immigrants and refugees — took root at NC State. As an undergraduate, Petercuskie served as a literacy coach for kids who were in and out of the state court system, many of them recent arrivals to the U.S. After graduation, she worked with Ameri-Corps in an underserved school in Miami, Fla., helping kids from Haiti and Mexico with English. A few years later, Petercuskie put her gift for teaching to work in a new way. “I’d felt for a while this call to go abroad, especially to Africa,” she says. A teaching internship near Congo gave her the opportunity.
In 2022, Petercuskie founded Lift One Kin with her fiancé, Ugandan gospel and reggae musician Joseph Kasirivu. In Uganda, she says, “there is much poverty and unemployment and far too many kids dropping out of school. Joseph and I believe we’re all connected, all kin, and have a responsibility to help each other where we can.”
Lift One Kin aims to meet the needs of Uganda’s vulnerable populations with a focus on children and young mothers. Projects include providing school supplies and educational opportunities to kids whose families cannot afford school and providing washable sanitary pads and other hygiene products to young mothers. The nonprofit also provides job training and sanitary bathroom options in the slums of Kampala.
“Right now we’re meeting needs as they come up. And the needs are many,” says Petercuskie. She hopes to consolidate services into a community hub, creating “a safe, familiar space where children and mothers can gather, learn, and get what they need to thrive.”
