In summer 2022, a team from Northern Illinois University visited JAMS and found it to be “a magical place.” Funded by a U.S. Department of State Fulbright-Hayes grant, the team spent two weeks at schools in Tanzania and two weeks at JAMS in Kenya. JAMS co-founder Teresa Wasonga and her fellow NIU professors James Cohen and Kurt Thurmaier led seven pre-service NIU students and seven practicing teachers in experiences designed to immerse them in a radically different culture, including learning Kiswahili, the common language of East Africa.

The purpose was to enable them to develop empathy so that when they are teaching, they will understand the difficulties faced by students who are learning a new language and/or are racially distinct from others in the classroom.

The result? One practicing teacher said, “At JAMS, I rediscovered my passion for teaching.”

The team knew immediately that JAMS was different. A practicing teacher commented, “Nowhere I’ve been, in any school, has been like JAMS. The love, the passion, the joy that I saw on these girls’ faces from the moment I got there was inspiring.”

During their two-week stay, the NIU visitors studied Kiswahili in the mornings. In the afternoons, they worked with JAMS students to write autobiographies, observed teaching by the JAMS faculty, became familiar with the high-quality facilities at JAMS, and toured the area near the school. They found JAMS teachers willing to engage in professional development and JAMS students eager to interact with and learn from the NIU team.

An NIU student commented, “I think that was the part that was so heart-warming – just seeing how much the students want to be there, how thankful they are to be there, and just how earnest they are to take in any information you want to give them.”

At the end of two weeks, an energetic, noisy, and joyful celebration for JAMS and the NIU visitors confirmed the benefits for all participants. JAMS students were enthusiastic about what they learned from the international visitors, not least the opportunity to get acquainted with African American members of the team, whose lives in America surprised them.

For the NIU team, JAMS was a life-changing experience. They were deeply impressed by the highly positive relationships between JAMS students and their teachers. They recognized the impact of JAMS residential facilities and other campus opportunities on the girls’ capacity to learn. Especially, they valued their own increased empathy for language-learners and students who are different from others in their classrooms – racially, linguistically, culturally, physically, and emotionally.

You can learn more about the NIU program HERE.