East Africa Program

Are you interested in:

• Exploring African culture up close and personal, including home stays in rural villages?
• Exploring some of our planet’s most breathtaking wildlife preserves and learning about effective approaches to community wildlife management?
• Learning about the challenges facing human societies with a focus on creative and inspiring solutions to human and ecological problems?
• Partnering with and learning from some of the leading sustainable development organizations in the world today, including: Ashoka, The Green Belt Movement, Heifer International and others?
• Learning about sustainable practices from permaculture to renewable energy?
• Making a real difference while living in and learning from the Maasai Community Partnership, Ashoka, an eco-village on Rusinga Island on Lake Victoria, and other exemplary community partners?

If so, we invite you to join us for an adventure in sustainability in Africa.

What will you do?  A lot!

First, we begin our semester in January 2013 (as well as Fall 2013) with a five day orientation program at Heifer International’s Overlook Farm in the rural town of Rutland, Massachusetts. During this time, we will build a learning community and identify how we want to live and learn together, learn about the culture and history of East Africa, be introduced to CELL’s experiential learning methodology, learn about the work Heifer International is doing in Massachusetts and around the world, etc. Heifer International offers a powerful global education experience at its Learning Center at Overlook Farm, located in Rutland, MA (62 miles West of Boston). Each program introduces participants to the idea that one person can make a difference in ending hunger and poverty.

Following our orientation at Heifer’s Overlook farm, we will fly from Boston to Nairobi, Kenya where we will participate in an eight (7) day language, culture, and history immersion program with the  Nairobi Institute of Swahili and East Africa Culture. We will learn the basics of the Swahili language, receive an introduction to Maa, the Maasai language, and learn about the history and culture of the East Africa region.

We will vist and learn from Ashoka Fellows, an internationally recognized organization building a critical mass of social entrepreneurs who are creating a vibrant, prosperous African continent. Ashoka Fellows in Africa are empowering people to create their own economic and civic opportunities, addressing the pandemic of HIV/AIDS and other devastating health concerns, implementing transformative education systems, protecting their environments and natural resources, and introducing effective methods of conflict

resolution. With the help of Ashoka’s global initiatives, Ashoka Africa is uniquely placed to identify and spread the best ideas for social, economic, and political change. Today there are more 350 Ashoka Fellows in 17 African countries. Ashoka Africa currently works under the 3 cluster regions of East, Southern and West Africa, and has 4 regional offices based in Mali, Senegal, South Africa, and Kenya.

Next, we will travel to the Maasai Community Partnership where we will learn about the impressive collaboration between the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition (MERC), a grassroots umbrella organization of Maasai human rights and conservation efforts, CELL, and Prescott College in Arizona, a liberal arts college dedicated to social and environmental justice. The MCPP was created in 2004 by Meitamei Olol Dapash, MERC Executive Director and Mary Poole, Program Coordinator of Cultural and Regional Studies faculty at Prescott College, to support the Maasai community in its efforts to sustain its culture, achieve education, and become politically and economically empowered.  It is based in Maasailand, at the MCPP center near Talek in Narok District, and in Prescott and includes many members in Maasailand and Prescott. We will be learning, living, and participating in service-learning projects with the Maasai Community Partnership for six (6) weeks.

Next, we travel to Rusinga Island for a week where we learn about the work being done at the Badilisha Eco-village promoting permaculture farm design techniques and ethics. This small, fledgling eco-village is establishing itself as a model farm, or epicenter, for both sustainable agriculture and holistic community development.

Finally, we travel to Tanzania where we spend time learning from several internationally recognized organizations, including Heifer International,  Dorobo Ujamaa Community Development Trust, and Farm Africa Tanzania. For more information on these internationally recognized organizations, click on their links to be brought to their home pages. All of CELL’s partners have been chosen because of their commitment to building economic, social, and environmental sustainability and to modeling best practices in effective community development.

 

What about course work?

You will receive 15 college credits from Lesley University, or if you are from one of CELL’s other partnering institutions, like Northland

College, you will receive credit directly from your home institution. Below are the descriptions of our East Africa courses (please let us know if you would like more detailed course syllabi):

Course Title:  Culture, Language and History of Kenya and Tanzania (LINTD 2003 – Lesley University)

 Course Description:  This course provides students with an overview of: 1) the society, history, and culture of Kenya and Tanzania; 2) the complex challenges of conservation and development facing the people of this region; and 3) the language of the region. Students gain an understanding of the sociocultural context of their host country, discuss differences, and compare these differences to their own country. The course includes opportunities to live with host families; travel to various cultural and natural history sites; and engage in discussions, lectures, reflective writing, and sustainable-practices service work.

Course Title:  Sustainable Societies in Africa

Course Description:  In the 21st century, the inter-related needs of providing for a growing population, improving quality of life, and ensuring the preservation of the natural environment are essential if our species is going to survive. In this course, students research and explore the most critical social, economic and environmental sustainability challenges in East Africa; examine how these challenges are global in scope; and develop real-life strategies to address the challenges threatening our survival. This course is intrinsically interdisciplinary and builds students’ problem-based learning skills and ability to apply higher level thinking skills such as modeling, formulating questions, identifying bias, inferring, relating, synthesizing, reflecting, and evaluating – to an analysis of problems and solutions.

 The Sustainable Societies Africa course will be taught within an integrated three course block: – along with CELL’s Crossroads Thinking course where students learn to apply ecological, systems, critical, and creative thinking skills to an analysis of issues and solutions, and CELL’s Community Sustainability: Service-learning course where students work hand-in-hand with internationally recognized NGOs to apply the theory they are learning in the classroom to real-life issues communities are facing.

The learner-centered pedagogy used in the course takes students through a four-step process that develops: 1) an understanding of ecological systems and the principles of sustainability, 2) an understanding of how human systems need to be patterned after ecological systems, 3) an understanding of the issues threatening ecological balance and human survival, and 4) an understanding of proactive solutions to problems and identifying action steps that can be taken in one’s own life and community to live more sustainably. As part of this process, students identify and build integrated learning resources which document regional issues/problems and best practices and case studies of how they can be addressed. Finally, students present how such strategies can benefit global, regional, and local communities.

Course Title:  Crossroads Interdisciplinary Thinking for the 21^st Century (LINTD 4003 – Lesley University)

Course Description: This course grounds students in a new and interdisciplinary way of thinking.  Combining elements of critical and creative thinking, this course helps students to develop skills in questioning, imagining possibilities, exploring opportunities, analyzing alternatives, synthesizing ideas, and evaluating thought. Through a variety of course activities, students identify essential interdisciplinary qualities. Students develop the capacity and skill to be able to examine thought from different points of view (e.g. cultural, political, social, economic, scientific, artistic, gender-based, multi-age-based, spiritual, philosophical, historical, empathetic, and integrated perspectives).

Course Title:  Sustainability: Secrets of Simplicity  (LINTD 3699 – Lesley University)

 Course Description: This survey course examines the field of sustainability and explores creative ways to build sustainable communities. We look at innovative strategies and programs currently being implemented in the U.S. and in Central America to proactively address issues threatening global sustainability. The focus of this class is to examine the choices we make and to look at how to incorporate sustainable practices into our lives. Students also explore the principles of voluntary simplicity and the relationship of these principles to sustainability. In addition to thought-provoking readings and lively class discussions, students also explore, through experiential and service-learning, an understanding of and appreciation for the work of several internationally recognized community development/sustainability organizations, including: Heifer International, Ashoka, Badilisha Eco-village, and others.

Course Title:  Service Learning: Sustainability Through Community (LINTD 3707 – Lesley University)

 Course Description: This course challenges students to apply what they are learning in their academic course work (e.g. about human and ecological issues facing Kenya and Tanzania to real-life sustainable solutions being adopted by their host communities.  Students work hand-in-hand with community partners to create appropriate and innovative solutions to environmental, economic, cultural, and social challenges facing communities in this region of the world.

Specific service-learning projects will be driven by the needs of the local community and include the participation of students, members of the community who are involved in the projects, host country partnering organizations, and the instructors. Through structured reflection exercises and journaling, students will constantly evaluate their progress, examining how theory relates to their real world experience in the community. Students also develop individual environmental action plans that will enable them to engage creative, environmental solutions on their campuses or in their communities back home.  Students design an individual stewardship action plan in cooperation with their instructor (see information below).

When is the program offered?

Fall Semester 2012 (September through November)

What are the program costs?

Program Cost is $14,150 + air fare from Boston. Cost includes all fees for tuition, college credit, room and board, academic supplies, books, organized tour and activities fees, service-project materials, and ground transportation for organized activities. Not included in the fee are expenses for health insurance and personal expenditures for free time, including transportation, souvenirs, etc.

How do I apply?

For information on our application process, see the How to Apply page.

This semester program is designed for students who want to believe that one life, their life can, indeed, make a big difference in the world. The world becomes our classroom as we learn from internationally recognized community development organizations, explore opportunities for living sustainably, reflect on how these experiences impact us personally, synthesize what we have learned, and commit to taking action in our lives to make the world a better place in which to live.

You will be exposed to a variety of experiences that will stir you to look at yourself and your relationship to others/community in new ways. And at the completion of the program, you will be asked to take a leadership role in implementing a “community sustainability action plan” back home. We believe in you. We believe that you each have unique abilities, insights, passions, and gifts. And we will ask you to share these gifts during the semester program and beyond.

We believe that the answer(s) to what you are sincerely seeking lies within you right now. And a CELL experience will challenge you to believe that anything is possible.

If this program lights a fire within your imagination, please consider applying.  For more information, e-mail us at: info@cellonline.org or call us at (207) 230-4025. We look forward to receiving your application!