Creating and Sustaining Interest in Study Abroad in Rwanda at Indiana University

• In Event: Poster session I
  In Poster Session: Poster session 1

Proposal

How can a campus create a sustainable focus on study abroad that attracts minority and international students as well as white US students? How can this initiative avoid voluntourism practices and promote a sustain engagement with the partner community in the host country. This poster presentation will explore these questions in the context of a study abroad initiative at Indiana University Bloomington that is approaching its 12th year. Study abroad in Rwanda has become an offering of multiple units at Indiana University Bloomington, beginning with a student-led initiative to collaboratively create storybooks for primary school children in northern Rwanda. The storybook project, which collects stories written and illustrated by children in the US and Rwanda, is publishing its 11th volume this year, but the community partnership with school staff and the parents’ association has led to other activities such as annual English camps, a school library, a new playground, and an optometry clinic. The initiative has spread to other schools in the region as well.

Other Indiana University study-abroad initiatives in Rwanda include courses in non-profit management and micro-finance, as well as internships in public health and medicine. This cluster of study abroad activity focused on one African country has helped to generate interest in African languages such as Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda and has also generated cross-unit dialogue about Rwandan history and culture. Related on-campus activities (film festival, special displays, roundtables) have helped to recruit students into the study abroad programs in Rwanda. Campus philanthropy and dedicated faculty and staff has also played a key role in raising interest in Rwanda.

This poster presentation will provide visual descriptions of these activities. The presenter will discuss critical moments as a faculty advisor, scholar, researcher and teacher in the development of the education project, and will address some of the high points and low points that have occurred along the way. The session will invite attendees to talk, share insights and ideas about achieving effectiveness, awareness of the impact of study abroad initiatives, and community engagement in Rwanda and other less commonly visited study abroad destinations.

Author

• Beth Lewis Samuelson, Indiana University Bloomington