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UCA in Rwanda: Science, Society and Service-Learning

 

UPDATE Oct. 8, 2024: Due to unexpected conditions in country, UCA in Rwanda: Science, Society and Service-Learning has been cancelled for Summer 2025. We hope you’ll be able to join us for a study abroad experience in the future, or in another destination.

 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. Students will visit significant locations within the country including the capitol city of Kigali, the National Genocide Memorial, the Nyungwe rainforest, Lake Kivu, and Akagera National Park. Students will have multiple days participating in service-learning activities related to science education and community development. Throughout the program, students will be exposed to and have opportunities to explore and investigate the unique culture, flora, and fauna of Rwanda. 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, the Virunga mountains, and Akagera savannah, and interrogate the intersections of ecotourism and conservation efforts.

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.

Faculty Leaders and Course Offerings

Dr. Leah Horton has been leading the Science, Society, and Service-Learning in Rwanda study abroad program since 2012 and has formed deep, lasting relationships with our Rwandan service-learning partners. She believes strongly in the power of travel and experiencing new cultures to transform students’ lives, broaden their horizons, and cultivate global connections. Dr. Horton is currently the Associate Dean of the Norbert O. Schedler Honors College and has degrees in chemistry, biochemistry and cell biology, and leadership studies. She has two mostly grown children and loves dogs and yarn!

Courses offered by Dr. Horton:

  • BIOL 4390 Special Topics in Biology
  • HONC 3310 Junior Seminar

 

 

 

 

 

During her eleven years at UCA, Dr. Riva Brown‘s PR classes have completed at least 15 service-learning projects with nonprofits serving Arkansas residents and citizens in Kenya, Ghana, Zambia, and Syria. Her classes also have completed Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects with higher education institutions in Colombia, Kenya, Ukraine, Mexico, and Michigan. She also taught in the summer program at ITESO, a Jesuit university in Guadalajara, Mexico. In addition, she leads the Syrian Emergency Task Force (SETF), UCA Chapter.

In summer 2023, Dr. Brown traveled to Rwanda for a service-learning/education abroad experience. Weeks later, Dr. Brown spent three weeks doing disaster relief in Guam, where she helped residents recover from Typhoon Mawar. In summer 2024, Dr. Brown travelled to Thailand for business, to Turkey with SETF, and to Senegal as a Winrock International volunteer. Other notable trips over the years include the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Egypt. Dr. Brown cruised to the Dominican Republic with her high school foreign language club: “Dominicans thought I was a native and often greeted me in Spanish. During my study abroad experience in Jamaica as a grad student in the 1990s, I was often mistaken for being Jamaican. I didn’t complain. My resemblance helped me land a part-time job in a craft market there. Years later, I traveled to Egypt alone and spent two weeks there. No one mistook me for being Egyptian, however.”

Courses offered by Dr. Brown:

  • PRLS 4316 – Special Topics in Public Relations: Propaganda, PR & the Press
  • WLAN 2315 – Cultural Studies [LD UCA Core: Diversity in Creative Works]

 

 

 

Learn Kinyarwanda

Practice some Kinyarwanda before your trip with our Basic Kinyarwanda Translations cheat sheet. Also, check out Mango Languages, a language learning resource free for UCA students.