My Trip to Kenya - by Julia Garleb, Assistant Hall Director, University Hall

Hey y’all! I’m Julia Garleb, and I am currently an Assistant Hall Director, as well as a Graduate Assistant in Student Development – Fraternity & Sorority Life. I am a 2nd year graduate student in the Masters program of Educational Administration & Higher Education, concentrating in College Student Personnel.

This past summer, I had the opportunity to study abroad for 2 ½ weeks with nine of my fellow graduate students to Kenya. If you haven’t already heard, our Dean of Students, Dr. Peter Gitau, is originally from Kenya. Each year, he takes a group of college students to Kenya to experience the culture and complete a service trip. This past summer was the first time Dr. Gitau had taken a group of Higher Education students with him. One of our professors, Dr. Tamara Yakaboski, and Dr. Gitau coordinated this trip to be both a service trip and an African Higher Education study abroad course.

We left the States on May 30th for a layover in London, England and then on to Nairobi, Kenya—spending a total of 16 hours in flight! We then drove 10 hours east to the Mombasa coast to spend a couple days at the Indian Ocean and then returned to Nairobi for some educational sightseeing at the Bomas of Kenya and the Masaai Market.

The next 3 days were spent visiting a few higher education institutions in Kenya: Kenyatta University, St. Paul University, and Jomo Kenyatta University of Science and Technology. We also were able to meet with professionals within Kenya Institute of Education, which is the organization that researches, creates, and coordinates ALL of the education materials for Kenya (similar to Curriculum & Instruction, but for the entire country). During this time, we were able to interview and interact with Kenyan college students, faculty, and staff; tour their facilities, including their student centers, libraries, academic buildings, and hostels (otherwise known as our residence halls!); and learn the historical and current developments of the educational system.
We soon transitioned from Nairobi to the small village of Kambi, where we would fulfill our service portion of the trip. Before leaving the States, our Higher Education group raised about $3,000 to build a new library for the Kambi Primary School. Our original goal was to raise $2,000 to refurbish their current library, yet when they found out we greatly surpassed the expectation, we had a enough to build a whole new building! During these 3 days, we were able to teach the students (Pre-school through 8th grade) and, literally, build the library—think cutting and bending rebar for the beam support; making and hand-mixing concrete from sand, rocks, and water; and building windows and frames—all without electricity! It was hardwork, but we were soon treated to....an African Safari!

We took about a 5-hour drive south to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve. We spent 3 days at the Game Reserve taking morning and evening game drives. We saw so many animals—elephants, hippos, water buffalo, lions, gazelles, ostrich, cheetahs, hyenas, among so many others. We soon left Kenya on June 16th and began again on our 16-hour flight home.

This trip, was both a once in a lifetime experience and inspirational. I have been able to use this experience both inside the classroom and outside within my own professional development when thinking of the international impact of higher education. As our society becomes more and more globalized, I highly encourage all students and higher education professionals to travel and study abroad, and SIUC offers the best resources to do so!