A group of NIU students this summer will embark on the university’s first-ever study abroad program in Tanzania, where they’ll take a safari across the Serengeti during the height of wildebeest migration, visit spice markets on the island of Zanzibar and tour slave market historical sites.
Students also will learn about non-governmental organizations in developing countries and about the government and politics of Tanzania and the East African Union. They will work to develop marketing plans with entrepreneurial women’s groups. And they’ll join forces with a volunteer group to build a dormitory for high school girls in the small village of Nyegina.
Public Administration Professor Kurt Thurmaier is leading the experiential learning opportunity, which is open to all students. It begins June 1, and runs through June 28. Students can earn three to six undergraduate or graduate credit hours.
Thurmaier says the experiential learning component of the study abroad program taps a strong desire of students today to contribute to society through volunteerism.
“It’s not just study abroad, where students go and look, but where they go and look and do,” he says. “Students can experience a different culture and leave knowing they’ve made a lasting contribution.”
Thurmaier is also leading fundraising efforts to pay for the dormitory construction. For more information, contact him at kthur@niu.edu.
- Tom Parisi, NIU Public Affairs
- Tanzania photos courtesy of Kurt Thurmaier
Professor
Kurt Thurmaier