Mulligan sets out to experience the world firsthand

A little honey goes a long way.

For some, that’s just a saying to reflect that being nice and polite is more fortuitous than not. But for Colin Mulligan, the saying takes on a literal meaning.

As one who “prefers to learn about foreign cultures and people, and their relationships,” Mulligan headed to Africa upon fulfilling his master’s degree requirements in international affairs from University College in Arts & Sciences.

“Most immediately, a love of travel and the low cost of living brought me here,” Mulligan said via e-mail, “but also the fact that I knew almost nothing about this part of the world and wanted to experience it firsthand.”

Along the way, he bought a small motorbike in Maputo, Mozambique, and used it as his main means of transportation.

It also served as an unorthodox teaching tool.

“I made it to within 10 kilometers of the Malawi border before realizing that I had to camp for the night,” he said. “I found a small house and asked the father of an extended family if I could camp. He spoke almost no English, but my Portuguese was good enough for us to converse well enough when he spoke slowly.

“The father, Amerigo, was very hospitable. He kept helping with my tent, and that probably extended the time it took to put it up by half. We sat on the small porch of his house, they turned on a small radio, and I fell asleep listening to sounds of nearby radio stations.

“I woke up the next morning all ready to go, but I had a flat tire. I had some vulcanized rubber sealer, but the can had punctured and it was worthless. Amerigo and his friends sent someone to the store and came back with honey, and the job was finished about a half-hour later. I made it all the way to Blantyre, more than 200 kilometers over bumpy gravel roads, on that mended tire.”

After Mulligan offered Amerigo his St. Louis Rams hat, which the host proudly wore, the two became good friends.

But that’s just part of Mulligan’s journey.

A native of St. Louis, he earned a bachelor’s degree in foreign affairs at the University of Virginia. He played fullback on the Cavaliers’ football team and counts NFL stalwarts Patrick Kerney, Terrence Wilkins and John St. Clair among his college teammates.

“When Tiki Barber and some of the older guys started coming back to campus on their weekends off, they would talk about life in the NFL, but they never made it sound that glamorous,” Mulligan said. “To them it was really just a job, and a very difficult one at that.

“But when guys my own age started going pro, it was like, ‘Man, these are the same guys who used to eat the same questionable cafeteria food as me, and stuff their bags with free Gatorades at the hotel just like I did. Now they’re millionaires, and I have to look for a job.'”

After leaving Virginia, Mulligan started teaching at his father’s high school alma mater, Saint Louis Priory — the younger Mulligan graduated from The John Burroughs School. Entering his third year of teaching, he also assumed the role of assistant director of admissions.

A precondition of the job was that he needed to pursue an advanced degree as soon as possible. It didn’t have to be in education, and it could be in any master’s program that he wanted.

“I turned to WashU because of its academic reputation and proximity to my home, and looked for a program with ‘international’ in its title,” he said.

“The program completely changed me as a person. I was lucky enough to be enrolled in a program with courses that addressed issues like U.S. foreign policy, relations between the global rich and global poor, the morality of war, etc. Suddenly I couldn’t get enough of learning.

“There are very few area requirements in the program, and as a result there is a wonderful environment of academic freedom and independence. I was consistently able to choose courses and research topics that interested me.”