CONWAY, Ark. (October 6, 2016) – Hendrix College has received a $89,270 U.S. Department of Education grant to support a five-week Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad trip to Rwanda this summer.
The project, titled “Understanding Rwanda: Culture, Education, Development,” will be led by Hendrix English Professor Dr. Carol West, who wrote the grant.
Twelve K-12 teachers from the Mid-South (Arkansas, Texas, and Mississippi) and two Hendrix juniors who plan to certify to teach in social sciences or humanities fields will accompany West for five weeks of intensive educational travel, lectures, meetings, and site visits in Rwanda.
Participants will be selected later this semester and will participate in a series of monthly meetings and workshops during the spring prior to traveling to Rwanda.
“This is an amazing opportunity for us,” said West. “I’ve found more extended stays in Africa are tremendously helpful to teaching about Africa. They’ve been really valuable to my own teaching and that made me want to assist other educators in getting access to that first-hand experience.”
The project builds on the success of previous Arkansas initiatives related to Rwanda by Heifer International, Bridge2Rwanda, the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service, and Westrock Coffee Company.
Participants will meet representatives of those organizations, as well as Rwandan students studying in Arkansas, to prepare for the trip.
In Rwanda, the project participants will collect information and materials to develop African Studies curriculum units for K-12 education on Rwandan history, geography, people, culture, and educational and economic issues, when they return.
“If you want students in this part of the country to have a more global perspective, they need teachers who have been to parts of the world they are teaching about,” said West. “This project will give teachers an opportunity to meet people in person and see local school texts, which are irreplaceable
resources that only field experience gives you access to.”
The Fulbright-Hays grant is the culmination of a multi-year “Teaching Rwanda” project featuring a series of K-12 teacher workshops. The “Teaching Rwanda” project was initially funded by the Isabelle Peregrin Odyssey Professorship at Hendrix, which West previously held.
Hendrix has sponsored K-12 teacher outreach and interdisciplinary Africana studies for decades, said West, who is completing her final year of service as a board member for Africa Network, a national organization that promotes African Studies teaching in the liberal arts.
West, who joined the Hendrix faculty in 1977, has developed and taught courses in African novel, African literature, and African film since the mid-1980s.
In 1997, she received her first Fulbright grant for a Group Project Abroad to Ghana. Dr. West has been the grant writer for subsequent Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad in South Africa, Kenya, Cameroon, Gambia and Senegal.
Per the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad grant guidelines, the College’s and participants’ in-kind cost-share of personnel time, facilities use, participation and medical fees, and U.S.-based travel expenses will match approximately 38 percent ($33,740) of the U.S. Department of Education funding.
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.