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UCA in Rwanda: Science, Society and Service-Learning 2026

 

Important Dates

Tentative Travel Dates:  May 9 – June 1, 2026

Interest Meetings: View on Office of Education Abroad event calendar here.

Scholarship Application Deadline: November 2, 2025

Application and Deposit Deadline: January 15, 2026

 Program Description

UCA in Rwanda seeks to immerse students in the history and culture of Rwanda through engagement with texts, films, museums, national parks, and the Rwandan people. Rwanda is known as “the land of a thousand hills” and is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Students will visit significant locations within the country including the capitol city of Kigali, the National Genocide Memorial, the cave systems of Musanze, a local coffee plantation, an award winning basket weaving cooperative, and Akagera National Park. Students will have multiple days participating in service-learning activities with a local non-profit organization. Students will contextualize the colonial creation of race in Rwanda analyzing the contributing factors leading to the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi, explore the role the traditional gacaca courts functioned regarding restorative justice following the 1994 genocide, explore the rich flora and fauna of the Albertine Rift Valley and the Akagera savannah, and interrogate the intersections of ecotourism and conservation efforts.

Faculty Leaders and Course Offerings

Dr. Leah Horton has been co-leading the Science, Society, and Service-Learning in Rwanda study abroad program for over a decade. She has developed extensive relationships with community partners in Rwanda and has published articles on community projects and service-learning in Rwanda. Dr. Horton was UCA’s 2025 Global Learning Faculty Leader of the Year and Conway Morning Rotary Club’s 2024 Rotarian of the Year. She believes in the transformational power of global learning through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and travel abroad. She is also an avid knitter/crocheter and always packs plenty of yarn on her trips!

Courses offered by Dr. Horton:

  • WLAN 2315 Cultural Studies
  • HONC 3310 Junior Seminar

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Opeyemi Adedoja (Bayo) is a community ecologist with a broad interest in understanding how drivers of global change shape plant-pollinator interactions. Dr Adedoja completed his Ph.D. in Entomology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa in 2019 where he conducted his research on differential effects of landscape transformation on plant-pollinator interactions in the Cape Floristic Region Biodiversity Hotspot. He conducted his postdoctoral research at the pollinator ecology lab, Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, where he evaluated how landscape and local factors influence the conservation outcomes of pollinator gardens for managed and wild pollinators across a gradient of urban development. Dr Adedoja developed significant interest in pollinator ecology during his field trip with Tropical Biology Association to Kibale National Park, Uganda in 2016. Dr Adedoja is well published on topics bordering pollinator ecology and conservation, and he has contributed to teaching Principles of Biology II, General Entomology, Global Change Biology, and Pollinator Conservation Ecology at UCA.

Professor Opeyemi AdedojaCourses offered by Dr. Adedoja:

  • BIOL 4390 Special Topics in Biology

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Lesley Graybeal has her bachelor and master’s degrees in English and her PhD in social foundations of education, with an emphasis on comparative and international education. Dr. Graybeal has over 15 years of experience teaching writing, literature, and research methods courses at the college level, and she led UCA’s service-learning program for nine years. Dr. Graybeal has studied Spanish, Italian, and Chinese languages and gained as passion for global learning as an undergraduate student, when she participated in study abroad experiences including travel to New Zealand, Italy, Switzerland, Croatia, South Korea, and the Galapagos Islands. As a graduate student, she had an assistantship with an international civic education partnership between the University of Georgia and several universities in Tunisia, where she had the opportunity to travel twice for binational civic engagement conferences. She also had the incredible experience of living in Nanjing, China for a year with her husband, Dr. Zach Smith, who teaches Asian history at UCA. Dr. Graybeal is currently the Director of Living Learning Communities at UCA, and when she isn’t at home with her cats, she enjoys traveling and hiking throughout Arkansas with her family.

Courses offered by Dr. Graybeal:

  • WLAN 2315 Cultural Studies

 

 

 

 

 

Program Cost

Once available, the estimated program cost will be posted here.

Health and Safety 

Students registering for programs should carefully read through all health and safety information provided during the application process. In addition, students should honestly complete the ‘Health and Safety Form’ so that any health related concerns may be adequately accommodated on study abroad programs.

Participants will be enrolled in comprehensive international insurance for the duration of programming. It is the student’s responsibility to extend insurance cover if they stay abroad beyond UCA’s planned program dates. For information about international insurance coverage: https://uca.edu/globalstudy/health-and-safety/

Students must attend one health and safety meeting during the spring semester. Meeting dates will be announced after the application deadlines.