ISSUED: 12 July 2023
MEDIA CONTACT: Dana Costa
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — A Shepherd University professor and three students from the School of Education spent most of June studying and working in Kenya.
Dr. LeAnn Johnson, associate professor of education and Master of Arts in Teaching program coordinator, traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, June 5-23 with Erin Bajada, a Master of Arts in Teaching graduate student, and Jennifer Flynn, an elementary education major, both from Harpers Ferry; and Emily Dalton, an elementary education major from Martinsburg.
Each morning, Bajada, Dalton, and Flynn worked at Daystar Mulandi Transformational Primary School. Johnson said spending time at the elementary school gave them a better understanding of the impact that poverty and culture have on the challenges Kenyan teachers face.
“Those challenges include having more than 50 students in each class with only a piece of chalk and a black painted area on the wall. They worked with children who go from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. without any food and the headmaster of the school begs for firewood so that beans provided by a charitable organization can be cooked for the children at lunchtime,” Johnson said.
“Seeing this level of need helps us get a global perspective and helps us recognize how blessed we are in the U.S., where every classroom is bursting with books, computers, and resources and where children with learning difficulties are identified early and provided with appropriate intervention to maximize their potential,” she added.
Dalton called the trip “an amazing opportunity to visit another country very different from our own.” She said working in the Kenyan schools opened her eyes to a different way of teaching.
“I will be able to use what I learned and observed from that teaching to make my future classroom an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for all students,” Dalton said. “On the trip we were also able to see the amazing wildlife in Africa. We enjoyed seeing giraffes almost every time we got in the car to go anywhere. If I ever get the chance to go back to Kenya, I will certainly go.”
Baja said her time in Kenya allowed her to form a profound connection with the country’s people and deepened her understanding of their culture as well as herself. She felt privileged to work daily at the primary school.
“I discovered a deep love for the smiling faces of the children and their eagerness to engage,” she said. “I also witnessed resiliency, became acquainted with the art of classroom management under challenging circumstances, and how people make the most of limited resources.”
Calling the trip “nothing short of transformative,” Baja said the lessons she learned will forever shape her path as an educator.
“Through this study abroad experience, I have gained an appreciation for the resiliency of the human spirit and the limitless potential for growth that exists within us all,” she said.
This is Johnson’s second trip to Kenya. From August-December 2022 she was a visiting professor at Daystar University, a private university with campuses in Nairobi and Athi River.
“As part of that work, I forged a new relationship with the local primary school where I was told that most of the 544 students had never held a storybook,” she said. “In response to this need, I set up a Go Fund Me, Books and Balls for Kenya, which raised money to build library shelving in the school and purchase about 1,500 books.”
In June, Bajada, Dalton, and Flynn planned a variety of lessons, teaching every age group from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade at least once. They encouraged students to read the books provided through Johnson’s efforts. To further that goal, Bajada designed and painted a mural on the wall of the library room to encourage students to transform their lives through reading.
They also expanded the Books and Balls for Kenya project to establish a library at a second rural school, Nthuluni Primary, which is so remote that it takes more than an hour to drive 12.4 miles to the end of a road before hiking the final six tenths of a mile to the school.
During the afternoon Bajada, Dalton, and Flynn attended Daystar University where they took an intensive special education class alongside Kenyan education majors.
“The class compared and contrasted U.S. and Kenyan education and the impact that poverty and under-resourced schools have on disability,” Johnson said.
Bajada, Dalton, and Flynn took field trips to the Kenya Institute of Special Education in Nairobi, Unit for Intellectually Disabled Students at the Machakos Islamic Primary School, Masaku School for the Physically Disabled, Machakos School for the Deaf, and Pillars of Hope Children’s Home, which cares for 75 orphaned or abandoned children.
They took a safari in the Nairobi National Park, visited the David Sheldrick Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Center, and saw dancing at the Bomas of Kenya, a center dedicated to preserving Kenya’s rich culture. They also toured the historic town of Mombasa with a light show at 14th century Fort Jesus and snorkeled in the Indian Ocean.
Johnson hopes to continue fostering a relationship with Daystar University and would like to take another group of Shepherd education students to Kenya next June.
“The people of Kenya are the most friendly and happy people I have ever met,” Johnson said. “Despite huge challenges, they meet each new day with a smile.”
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