Stanzi McGlynn

Hi! My name is Stanzi McGlynn. I am a senior Economics and Fine Arts double major and a minor in African Studies from Montoursville, PA. I recently returned from the Kenya Semester Program in the spring of 2009. During my stay in Kenya, I took four classes focusing on a variety of topics dealing with Kenya and East Africa as a whole. Everyone on the semester is required to take Kiswahili (the native language of Kenya) and a core course titled Culture, Environment, and Development in East Africa which includes several field components and homestays throughout the semester. In addition, I also took two elective classes including Health, Sickness, and Healing in Kenya and A History of Modern Kenya.

Some of my favorite aspects of the Kenya Semester included the numerous field components we participated in through the core course. Through this class we were able to travel throughout Kenya and neghboring Tanzania which enhanced what we were learning in the classroom with what we were seeing in the field; a Kenyan and East African reality. From interviewing indigenous tribes in both Kenya and Tanzania, to living with a family in a traditional home in rural Kenya, and going on a game drive in Amboseli National Park, this class was completely unique from anything I've ever experienced academically. I also really enjoyed the ability we had as students to travel within Kenya during our stay there. In addition to travelling for class, I went to the coast on the Indian Ocean near Mombasa, Kenya for spring break, travelled within the suburbs of Nairobi, and climbed Mt. Kenya (the second highest mountain on the continent of Africa) all in less than four months!