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This past spring, Andrew Smith [Junior '07-'10] taught in a school in Naivasha, Kenya, built by volunteers who formed the “KCC Slum Project” in 2009. The KCC Slum —named after the nearby Kenyan Creamery Cooperation—is home to about 4000 people, including 600 children. After the first month's feeding program, which fed the hungry children, the volunteers set out to begin the school and educate 130 students ages 2 to 12.
Both the feeding program and school are supported by donations collected each month. To provide jobs for the needy, four teachers were hired from the community to teach in a four room school house, divided into a daycare and grades 1 to 3.
“I began in Grade 2, teaching the class and helping to support the Kenyan teacher hired from the slum. The teachers are only about 18 years old and have very little education themselves, so more and more my job became supporting all the teachers and teaching them how to teach,” says Andrew.
Andrew’s focus was on literacy education and he helped teachers develop strategies for teaching reading and writing both in English and Kiswahili. Since he was the only volunteer who was a certified teacher, he also did a lot of basic school building such as developing standards for each grade, baselining students' reading and writing levels, and introducing concepts like differentiation, student-centered instruction, and assessment-driven lesson planning and curriculum development.
“The school still has a long way to go but the KCC Slum Project has a 20 year vision,” says Andrew.
The project hopes to relocate the community, create a full k-12 school and orphanage, a vocational and boarding school. Other goals include drastically improving the standard of living for the entire community by creating sustainable, safe, affordable housing and increasing access to education and jobs for adults in the community.
“I love working with kids all over the world,” says Andrew, “And I particularly admire how the children I have met here are so selfless, happy, and energetic despite the fact that many of their basic needs are barely being met, if at all. The work has been emotionally draining, and extremely challenging but some of the most rewarding I have ever done.”
To learn more about how you can help the KCC Slum Project, visit the website at www.kccslumproject.com and follow the blog at www.kccslumproject.wordpress.com
Andrew is currently back at the Junior Program this summer as Director of the Programming Office. |
| Recently, Andrew Durant [Intermediate Faculty '02] an MBA student at Babson College traveled for 2 weeks with 27 other students between Beijing, Xi'an, and Shanghai on an offshore elective course in China. The primary purpose of the course was to study several critical industries in the Chinese economy and learn about the economic realities of doing business in the country. Andrew had the opportunity to visit companies and see presentations across a variety of different industries, including manufacturing, educational, financial services, real estate, bio-pharmaceuticals, and distribution.
“Broadly, I would say that the most incredible thing about visiting China was seeing firsthand the tremendous growth that is taking place throughout the country,” says Andrew. “The amount of construction and infrastructure that is being developed is unlike anything I thought I would ever see. Cities such as Shanghai are incredibly sophisticated and cosmopolitan and there are areas of the city such as the financial center which did not exist even 15 years ago. Everywhere you turn, there is something new and exciting going on, and the energy in these cities is remarkable.”
Andrew really enjoyed getting a chance to visit the Shanghai World Expo which is running from May to October. It is estimated that there are currently approx. 500,000 people attending the Expo each day and after waiting in long lines to enter some of the pavilions. “I believe it!” says Andrew. “It is an enormous undertaking and to see how much preparation and planning went into it is amazing.” |
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