University of Wisconsin’s study abroad program gives students new perspectives that allows for them to develop a “global mindset.”
Study abroad led UW alumna Alissa Swenson to Kenya. There, she interned with Kibera Girls Soccer Academy, a secondary school for young women of Kibera, a slum of Nairobi.
After a book was released about the school, Swenson decided to bring her involvement back home, and helped organize a book tour in Madison. Since early August, the UW alumna has helped set up book readings at local art galleries like Yellow Rose Art Gallery and bookstores like Mystery to Me.
After coming home from study abroad, many students often bring back a “new lens” with which they can view different topics at UW, said Susan Lochner Atkinson, associate director for advising at UW’s study abroad office.
“More broadly, studying abroad can help students develop a global mindset that is essential to many employers, “Lochner Atkinson said.
For Swenson, her study abroad experience was inspiring for her because it allowed her to meet others who were making changes in their communities, Swenson said in an email to The Badger Herald.
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The school she interned at initially started as a soccer team for girls called Girls Soccer in Kibera in an attempt to foster change for the extreme gender inequalities that persisted in the area, Swenson said.
Abdul Kassim, who founded the school, hoped the program would create a supportive community for young women so they wouldn’t fall victim to “human atrocities,” Swenson said.
The school’s current director, Richard Teka, said soccer was used as a tool to empower young women and lower the rates of pregnancy and underage marriage.
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When Kassim realized soccer wasn’t enough to create systemic change, KGSA was established. Its first class was comprised of 11 girls and two volunteer teachers in 2006, Swenson said. The school grew to provide artistic and athletic programs for more than 130 students per year and 20 full-time staff.
KGSA foundation director Shannon Murphy said the school has recognized the need for extracurricular programs because they realize not every senior will be qualified to go to college.
In 2016, out of all of the seniors in Kenya, only about 15 percent got a qualifying grade, Murphy said. The school, rather than teach to achieve the qualifying grade, focuses on giving students tools so they can be successful after high school.
“Eighty-five percent of the seniors are going to have to find some other path forward after high school because there are limited university spots,” Murphy said. “So, the school really focuses on extracurricular sports and clubs and holistic skills that students can use to get a job after high school.”
This is drastically different from the graduation rates in the United States, where about 88 percent of women have graduated high school.
According to the Education Policy and Data Center, only about 48 percent of Nairobi’s girls attend secondary education, compared to 64 percent of the boys.
Teka said this is because boys’ education is valued over girls’. The hope is that girls will get married off and households who can afford secondary education will therefore send boys off to school over girls.
“Those families who can afford to pay for the high schools will [often] pay for boys [over] girls because they think that girls will end up getting married,” Teka said. “[KGSA] gives girls an access to education.”
