“The climate and culture at JAMS is so remarkable, so filled with love.” — Andrea Trudeau
Andrea Trudeau traveled from Illinois to JAMS in the summer of 2022, as part of a team of educators from Northern Illinois University (NIU) funded by a U.S. Department of State Fulbright-Hayes grant. (For more about this visit, see “A Magical Place” .)
She came back inspired. She told us that the “climate and culture at JAMS is so remarkable, so filled with love.”
Andrea is the school librarian at Alan B. Shephard Middle School in Deerfield District 109 and a Ph.D. candidate in instructional technology at NIU. An experienced educator with national and international experience in professional organizations and conferences on school librarianship, she reports that Dr. Teresa Wasonga, JAMS cofounder/director, has created a school environment focused on relationships, the “number one most important thing in education today.”
Andrea was impressed by the holistic approach at JAMS, where students learn in the classroom and in hands-on activities in science labs and agricultural projects and where the living environment is designed to support and empower the girls intellectually and emotionally.
“Coming back from East Africa, I’ve been acutely aware of what I experienced and learned, and I’m focused on sharing that with people here.” For example, she told her students how she saw girls and women carrying water in yellow jerry cans every day while she was in Kenya. She brought one to school to give the students a taste of what it’s like for girls and women to carry water for miles from rivers to their homes each day. The students were then able to reflect on how those hours spent carrying water are hours taken away from school and from work.
She also organized a supply drive for JAMS among her friends and colleagues. Colleagues from the Fulbright-Hayes group, colleagues at Shepard Middle School, her friends, her hairdresser, and her mother are among those who participated. One donor gave a blank check to pay for the shipping costs!
In all, Andrea collected, packed, and shipped 24 cubic feet (three huge boxes) of toothbrushes, socks, underwear, soccer cleats, athletic wear, books, jigsaw puzzles, and more. “So much love was poured into those boxes!”
Andrea says that what she experienced at JAMS “has completely altered who I am as a human being on this planet. Every day now, every time I turn on a faucet, I say thank you. I am focusing on living more simply. And for my birthday this year, I asked for the gift of education to a girl and my family and friends have combined to sponsor a scholarship to JAMS.”
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