Scholarship: Let Girls Learn
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Thank you for taking the time to learn a little bit more about this project and I hope that you stick around until the end!
As some of you reading this are probably aware, I served in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso from 2014 to 2016. During this time I learned a lot about myself, about a small slice of the world beyond the confines of "society" and found myself walking away from my service with some truly humbling experiences and lifelong friends. Since my return to the states I have remained in contact with both my friends in village as well as my friends who call the capital city, Ouagadougou, home and throughout this time we continue exchange news about our lives and how they can continue to advance their communities. I think that is what drew me to my two close friends, Paulin Bamogo and Christophe Sawadogo. They were determined to push their communities regardless of whether I was there as a volunteer or not, my presence was simply a bonus to their innate desires to leave behind a better world. You will all hopefully hear more about my project with Christophe in the near future, but today I am sharing about a project that was concocted with the help of my friend and professional mentor, Paulin Bamogo, heretofore referred to as just "Bamogo".
Bamogo was my professional counterpart in village and was the lead French professor at our little school in Kogho and since my departure he has been promoted to headmaster and moved his family to a nearby town to be closer to the school. He worked tirelessly to help his students, but also to help both Kogho and the village where he had been born. He was and is a staunch advocate for the rights of all students to access education and never hesitated to involve higher authorities in the event that it appeared that a student was being barred access to the school. He was also relentlessly patient with me as I proposed idea after idea to him and he would explain each idea's flaw or offer an altered version of the project idea that would more seamlessly fit into the cultural norm of our village. Such was the case again when I came to him with an idea this winter.
One of my former students had just called me and was telling me how school was going and what she hoped to accomplish. This particular student had always impressed me with her ability to think critically, arrive at detailed solutions to problems even when presented with limited information, and her commitment to advocate for her fellow female classmates. In fact, hearing about her ambitions to go to college so that she could be a teacher and help out future female students both filled me with pride as well as sadness. The pride is rather self-explanatory, but the sadness had to do with what I knew about the harsh realities of life in a village in Burkina Faso. School was a luxury rather than a requirement and while it has been demonstrated that sending children to an equal distribution of years in school maximizes a family's lifetime earning potential, culturally, most families in Burkina Faso tend to pool their resources behind their one or two "smartest" kids and the rest of the family falls into line. In a traditionally male dominated society it is rare that a daughter is selected for this honor and she is only selected if the family has money left over after sending their son on through higher education. This isn't to say that no girls get the chance to go to school, but they are rarely given the opportunity to complete school.
Because of this reality many girls don't hold a belief that by performing well in school they might be allowed to continue. They understand that their schooling could come to an end at any point and so they try hard, but an uncertain future can erode the determination of even the most dedicated student. Now the student who called me wasn't any old student. She was exceptional. In fact she had the highest test scores of any student in our entire region. So with this in mind I called Bamogo to propose the idea of a scholarship.
During my time in village I often explained my involvement with the female students by saying things along the lines of "well my mother is a school teacher in the states and she wants to ensure that the girls in my village have access to good school materials" or "she wants to ensure that the girls at my school have access to books". I did this because it wasn't uncommon for female students, unsure of their future in school, to seek out professors as potential partners. If I was going to spend time with the girls at the school either as a tutor or a mentor I had to ensure that my presence did create unfounded rumors around the village as everything that I did in village was so closely observed due to natural curiosity. It was along this line of thinking that I approached Bamogo with the idea to create a scholarship fund for this particular student in my mother's name to ensure that she would be able to continue with school and hopefully in the future have the opportunity to help those that came behind her. My hope was that through framing this as an investment by my mother it would feel more like an accomplishment by the awardees and coming from a women who herself had to face adversity in her education would help serve as an inspiration to the young students of Kogho. As Bamogo always does, he responded with a rebuttal.
"Why don't we make it a scholarship for exemplary female students, rather than for just this one student?"
"That's a great idea!"
"And could we raise money for more than one student? I think that the professors would like to nominate multiple students from different grades"
"I hadn't even thought of that, yes of course!"
And with his usual brilliance Bamogo created an excellent project design. We have gone back and forth more since that conversation and have a clearer picture of what we hope to accomplish with this project and who ought to be nominated and we have decided to begin our first year with $1000.
What does these $1000 do? Great question.
These $1000 will compliment money already contributed by a student’s family to ensure commitment, but it will allow four female students in four different grades to continue with another year of school. It will cover the costs of textbooks, which are almost deemed a luxury item for female students in village. It will cover the fees for the school lunch program for a year. And most importantly, it will serve as example to the other female students in Kogho that working hard can pay off in school. It will serve as an illustration that yes, there is a future for girls in school that is tied to their achievements rather that the financial standing of their family and that through hard work they can become architects of their own futures.
Along with the funding that this scholarship provides, successful nomination and acceptance into the program also requires the parents of the girl to allow her to stay after school in study hall three days a week. A luxury typically reserved for the male students, as the girls must head home to take care of their chores around the home.
This is only our first year and as much as I have been able to I have left the vision in the hands of Bamogo and taken a backseat as a supportive friend. As you have noticed I have left out the names of the students who will be awarded the scholarship in this first year and I also won't be providing progress reports on the individual recipients following the administration of the funds as I believe that they have the right to privacy in this matter. This may change in future years, but I will leave that up to Bamogo to decide as he has now stepped into the lead role in Kogho and has ownership over how this project will grow over the years as he works to invest in a future that is female in Burkina Faso.
I thank you all for whatever you can contribute to this project and for sticking around until the end of my ramblings.
Cheers,
Ryan K
As some of you reading this are probably aware, I served in the Peace Corps in Burkina Faso from 2014 to 2016. During this time I learned a lot about myself, about a small slice of the world beyond the confines of "society" and found myself walking away from my service with some truly humbling experiences and lifelong friends. Since my return to the states I have remained in contact with both my friends in village as well as my friends who call the capital city, Ouagadougou, home and throughout this time we continue exchange news about our lives and how they can continue to advance their communities. I think that is what drew me to my two close friends, Paulin Bamogo and Christophe Sawadogo. They were determined to push their communities regardless of whether I was there as a volunteer or not, my presence was simply a bonus to their innate desires to leave behind a better world. You will all hopefully hear more about my project with Christophe in the near future, but today I am sharing about a project that was concocted with the help of my friend and professional mentor, Paulin Bamogo, heretofore referred to as just "Bamogo".
Bamogo was my professional counterpart in village and was the lead French professor at our little school in Kogho and since my departure he has been promoted to headmaster and moved his family to a nearby town to be closer to the school. He worked tirelessly to help his students, but also to help both Kogho and the village where he had been born. He was and is a staunch advocate for the rights of all students to access education and never hesitated to involve higher authorities in the event that it appeared that a student was being barred access to the school. He was also relentlessly patient with me as I proposed idea after idea to him and he would explain each idea's flaw or offer an altered version of the project idea that would more seamlessly fit into the cultural norm of our village. Such was the case again when I came to him with an idea this winter.
One of my former students had just called me and was telling me how school was going and what she hoped to accomplish. This particular student had always impressed me with her ability to think critically, arrive at detailed solutions to problems even when presented with limited information, and her commitment to advocate for her fellow female classmates. In fact, hearing about her ambitions to go to college so that she could be a teacher and help out future female students both filled me with pride as well as sadness. The pride is rather self-explanatory, but the sadness had to do with what I knew about the harsh realities of life in a village in Burkina Faso. School was a luxury rather than a requirement and while it has been demonstrated that sending children to an equal distribution of years in school maximizes a family's lifetime earning potential, culturally, most families in Burkina Faso tend to pool their resources behind their one or two "smartest" kids and the rest of the family falls into line. In a traditionally male dominated society it is rare that a daughter is selected for this honor and she is only selected if the family has money left over after sending their son on through higher education. This isn't to say that no girls get the chance to go to school, but they are rarely given the opportunity to complete school.
Because of this reality many girls don't hold a belief that by performing well in school they might be allowed to continue. They understand that their schooling could come to an end at any point and so they try hard, but an uncertain future can erode the determination of even the most dedicated student. Now the student who called me wasn't any old student. She was exceptional. In fact she had the highest test scores of any student in our entire region. So with this in mind I called Bamogo to propose the idea of a scholarship.
During my time in village I often explained my involvement with the female students by saying things along the lines of "well my mother is a school teacher in the states and she wants to ensure that the girls in my village have access to good school materials" or "she wants to ensure that the girls at my school have access to books". I did this because it wasn't uncommon for female students, unsure of their future in school, to seek out professors as potential partners. If I was going to spend time with the girls at the school either as a tutor or a mentor I had to ensure that my presence did create unfounded rumors around the village as everything that I did in village was so closely observed due to natural curiosity. It was along this line of thinking that I approached Bamogo with the idea to create a scholarship fund for this particular student in my mother's name to ensure that she would be able to continue with school and hopefully in the future have the opportunity to help those that came behind her. My hope was that through framing this as an investment by my mother it would feel more like an accomplishment by the awardees and coming from a women who herself had to face adversity in her education would help serve as an inspiration to the young students of Kogho. As Bamogo always does, he responded with a rebuttal.
"Why don't we make it a scholarship for exemplary female students, rather than for just this one student?"
"That's a great idea!"
"And could we raise money for more than one student? I think that the professors would like to nominate multiple students from different grades"
"I hadn't even thought of that, yes of course!"
And with his usual brilliance Bamogo created an excellent project design. We have gone back and forth more since that conversation and have a clearer picture of what we hope to accomplish with this project and who ought to be nominated and we have decided to begin our first year with $1000.
What does these $1000 do? Great question.
These $1000 will compliment money already contributed by a student’s family to ensure commitment, but it will allow four female students in four different grades to continue with another year of school. It will cover the costs of textbooks, which are almost deemed a luxury item for female students in village. It will cover the fees for the school lunch program for a year. And most importantly, it will serve as example to the other female students in Kogho that working hard can pay off in school. It will serve as an illustration that yes, there is a future for girls in school that is tied to their achievements rather that the financial standing of their family and that through hard work they can become architects of their own futures.
Along with the funding that this scholarship provides, successful nomination and acceptance into the program also requires the parents of the girl to allow her to stay after school in study hall three days a week. A luxury typically reserved for the male students, as the girls must head home to take care of their chores around the home.
This is only our first year and as much as I have been able to I have left the vision in the hands of Bamogo and taken a backseat as a supportive friend. As you have noticed I have left out the names of the students who will be awarded the scholarship in this first year and I also won't be providing progress reports on the individual recipients following the administration of the funds as I believe that they have the right to privacy in this matter. This may change in future years, but I will leave that up to Bamogo to decide as he has now stepped into the lead role in Kogho and has ownership over how this project will grow over the years as he works to invest in a future that is female in Burkina Faso.
I thank you all for whatever you can contribute to this project and for sticking around until the end of my ramblings.
Cheers,
Ryan K
Organizer
Ryan Kennedy
Organizer
Seattle, WA