Boren Fellowship: Essay 2

Describe your proposed study plan in detail. Boren Fellowships support language and other classroom study, overseas research, overseas academic internships, or any combination of these elements. Explain all significant features of your plan, including institutional or other affiliations, if known.

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My proposed study plan will consist of three components: 1) a brief domestic program, 2) a substantial overseas program, and 3) an academic internship with Tostan, a regional non-governmental organization (NGO), and research project with the West African Research Center. I have been in contact with the parties involved and I am confident in my ability to succeed in all three aspects.

The domestic portion will begin June 8, 2015 in Gainesville, Florida where I will attend two months of intensive language and culture training. This part of the program will be hosted by the Center for African Studies of the University of Florida and the Department of Languages, Literatures, & Culture on behalf of the Institute of International Education (IIE). These classes will conclude on July 31, 2015.

West African culture, traditions and politics will be incorporated into my French and Wolof language training both inside and outside of the classroom, making this a unique part of the fellowship. My instructors will be native-speakers, and the instruction will be performance-based and oriented toward oral communication. Over the eight-week period, the classes will meet five days a week for four hours of classroom instruction and an additional one hour of speaking practice each day.

I will meet with a host family every other weekend to strengthen my communicative capacity in the two target languages. According to Dr. Charles Bwenge, AFLI Program Coordinator, this segment of the program is designed to assist students such as myself in reaching functional proficiency in French while gaining basic survival Wolof. This will better prepare me for my move to Senegal for the second and third portions of my proposed plan of study.

Within days of completing my study in Florida, I will go to Dakar, Senegal and begin my second component. This part of the program will be administered by the American Councils, an international nonprofit that provides educational opportunities to prepare individuals and institutions to operate and succeed in an increasingly globalized and interconnected world. The host institution in Dakar will be the West African Research Center (WARC), an organization that encourages research in West Africa and academic exchange between American and West African scholars.

This portion of my program will run from August 7, 2015 until November 20, 2015 totaling 15 weeks and will continue where the Florida course left off. The American Council’s program includes several parts such as intensive small-group language instruction with individualized lessons five days a week (20 hours a week) in French and Wolof. These individualized lessons will aid in my integration into Senegal and West African life as well as help me to focus on material in which I am less proficient. These lessons will focus on acquainting me with French speech at a variety of levels and settings. For example, “français de la route” is the language used casually between friends in an informal setting as opposed to the style of French that would be used in professional settings. Additionally, as a student of this program, I will be devoting a minimum of four hours a week to speaking with the private language partner provided by the AFLI program.

The program will likewise allow me to gain a greater regional and cultural experience in West Africa and particularly in Senegal. This will be achieved through homestays with local families, peer tutoring, and course work with an emphasis on the culture, history and politics of the region. I will be participating in planned excursions around the country two times each week, and I will have the opportunity to partake in a service-learning project.

As my second component comes to a close at the end of November, I will have approximately five weeks to prepare for the final component of my Boren Fellowship: an academic internship and research project.

Tostan is a non-profit organization working directly with rural communities in West Africa with its headquarters in Dakar. Tostan was founded in 1991 by an American woman who began living and working in Senegal since 1974. Tostan is fascinating to me in part because they work in Senegal and its five bordering countries (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania and The Gambia). This is an ideal position for me to fine-tune my languages and intercultural competencies that I will be developing throughout my fellowship. Tostan’s method is unique in that it is a rights-based approach and focuses on collective consciousness raising, inclusiveness and long-term community sustainability.

I will begin as a participant in Tostan’s “Africa Volunteer Program” in January 2016 when they hold one of their tri-annual orientations. I will serve the minimum requirement of one year with Tostan. Due to Boren time restrictions, I will only be serving Tostan as a Boren Fellow until August 2016 and spend the remaining five months without affiliation to Boren. Valentina Pomatto, the Volunteer Program Coordinator of Tostan, has explained to me that they are unable to issue me a Letter of Affiliation because I will not be selected until positions for that time frame have been released in Fall 2015. She is confident I will be selected as a volunteer and has been helpful in providing me with what information she can. Seeing that job descriptions for relevant volunteer positions will not be available until Fall 2015, I am only able to describe general details of the work I will be doing.

Tostan’s main component of their projects is their “Community Empowerment Program” which is a non-formal education initiative that covers topics specific for each community. The goal is twofold: 1) promote literacy and numeracy skills as well as 2) empower villagers to run their own development efforts. Tostan has worked in more than 2,600 villages and will be a great platform to launch my research project and delve deeper into languages and Senegalese culture.

At this time, I will be an affiliated researcher at the West African Research Center. My WARC-approved research project will focus on women’s participation in formal and non-formal government and their role as decision makers. More than ever before, Senegalese women are being elected to municipal and national government positions due to the gender parity law. The purpose of this research will be to improve US national security by evaluating how women’s participation in formal and non-formal government has an impact on Senegal’s stable democracy and moderate Islamic practices. I will be able to develop my project in more detail as my time in Senegal passes and I make more connections in the community. This research will also serve as my Capstone Project for the Reflective Practice Phase of my current masters program. At SIT Graduate Institute, I am working towards a degree in Intercultural Service, Leadership and Management and my proposed plan of study as a Boren Fellow will be the final component of my degree. My research advisor and current professor, Kanthie Athukorala, has endorsed my research proposal and will be working with me as my research advisor.