The Confidence to Belong: How Christian Okitondo ’15 Found Community and Purpose at La Roche University

Born and raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Christian Okitondo ’15 transferred to La Roche University after beginning his education in Texas, carrying both hope and fear.

La Roche became the place where he not only earned a mathematics degree, but where he discovered the confidence, purpose, and sense of belonging that shaped the rest of his life.

“When I came to Pittsburgh and La Roche, I had to become more responsible for my daily life. I was taking care of school, work, expenses, decisions, and my future,” Christian said. “What made La Roche special is that even though I was learning to stand more on my own, I didn’t feel abandoned. The community welcomed me. People cared.”

Living with other students while balancing full-time classes, work, rent, and everyday responsibilities forced Christian to grow up quickly and taught him the discipline and resilience that still define him today.

Through La Roche’s multicultural student organization GLOBE, its annual fashion show, and the Christian fellowship group LIFE, he discovered that independence didn’t have to mean isolation. “What I appreciated most was that people didn’t treat me like I was only ‘the international student.’ They treated me as Christian—someone with potential, dreams, and something to contribute. That made a lasting difference in my life,” he said.

Surrounded by students from Africa, Asia, and many other parts of the world, Christian also found a familiar sense of connection that reminded him of growing up in Congo and made La Roche feel more like home.

As his confidence grew, so did his involvement. He lived with other students in an off-campus apartment, worked his first job in the Sisters of Divine Providence cafeteria, served as a peer tutor, and later worked in the Wright Library.

“It’s not always about academics,” he said. “Sometimes it’s about being in the right community that gives you the peace of mind to excel in other goals that you have in life.”

One of Christian’s goals was to earn a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. A statistics class at La Roche merged two of his passions—numbers and human health—and set him on a path that led to a master’s degree, a Ph.D. in epidemiology and biostatistics from the University of Georgia, and a career generating real-world evidence to improve cancer care.

Today, Christian serves as a Lead Real-World Evidence Biostatistician in Oncology at McKesson Corporation, where he partners on collaborative research with biopharmaceutical companies to generate real-world evidence that supports better decisions in cancer care. In this role, he uses real-world clinical data to better understand how cancer patients are treated and the outcomes they experience in everyday practice.

“La Roche taught me that people grow best when they feel seen, supported, and respected. That lesson still influences how I work today,” he explained. “In my field, we deal with data, statistical models, treatment outcomes, and scientific questions. But behind every dataset are real cancer patients, real families, and real communities. La Roche helped me understand that the human side should never be lost.”

Recognized for his career and service accomplishments, Christian received the La Roche Distinguished Alumni Circle Award in 2022. As his career continued to flourish, he found himself reflecting on a deeper question: What kind of legacy did he want to leave behind? This reflection inspired his memoir, “The Champion in You: Be the Light That Others See,” a book encouraging others to live with courage, purpose, faith, and kindness.

“I started to question what legacy I was leaving behind and what I wanted people to remember about me. Was it my career? Was it my education? Was it the success I had achieved? And the answer became clear: I wanted to be remembered not for my achievements, but for my kindness—for being the light that others see. To me, that’s more important than our degrees and our professions.”

Today, Christian sees a direct line from his experience at La Roche to the person and professional he became.

“Everything I have done since graduating from La Roche, including graduate school, earning my Ph.D., teaching, cancer research, and my current work in oncology real-world evidence, is connected in some way to the foundation I received at La Roche,” he said. “It was the place where I truly began to stand on my own. It was where fear slowly became confidence, and where a young international student began to see what was possible. I will always be proud to be a La Roche alumnus.”