{"id":44151,"date":"2022-01-11T15:46:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T15:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/?p=44151"},"modified":"2022-01-12T18:20:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T18:20:08","slug":"expanding-horizons-for-students-across-the-globe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/expanding-horizons-for-students-across-the-globe\/","title":{"rendered":"Expanding horizons for students across the globe"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Reposted with permission from NASSP\u2019s\u00a0School of Thought<\/em>\u00a0blog: https:\/\/www.nassp.org\/2021\/10\/20\/a-pen-pal-program-expands-students-horizons\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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I was a junior at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, CA when COVID-19 hit. After classes moved online, I missed talking to my friends in person, and I was really bored. I was also curious about what life during the pandemic was like in different parts of the world. As a member of the National Honor Society, I still needed to do volunteer work. So, I came up with a way to help young people like myself feel less isolated by starting a pen pal program with students at a rural school in Kenya.<\/p>\n

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The school is Nyamboyo Technical School, which enrolls about 60 students, ages 14-20, most of whom struggle with poverty, hunger, and access to clean water and health care. Students can choose from four professions for their studies: dressmaking and tailoring, electrical wiring, hairdressing, and masonry and carpentry. Purely by coincidence, another NHS student\u2014Noah Jung at Maggie L. Walker Governor\u2019s School in Richmond, VA\u2014edited a\u00a0professional-quality video<\/a>\u00a0on the school\u2019s web page that gives a good introduction to its mission.<\/p>\n

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When I became NHS president my senior year, we expanded the program to reach more students at Nyamboyo. I thought a pen pal program would be a fun and engaging way for the students in Kenya to learn English instead of staring at a textbook. For American students, the program is an antidote to ignorance because we learn from our peers in Kenya about their country and how people live there.<\/p>\n

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I love learning about my pen pal, Edwin. He\u2019s studying masonry and carpentry now, and it\u2019s really interesting to hear about his life because it\u2019s so different from mine. Even though I\u2019m in my first year of college now, I still stay in touch with him. In fact, I just sent him a letter today.<\/p>\n

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Because of differences in technology, it\u2019s not easy for us to send messages back and forth. The only decent technology students have is in their schools. On the American side, we send emails that get set up on Google Docs, which are then sent to the principal in Kenya to print out for the students. On the Kenyan side, students write letters, which get scanned and sent to us.<\/p>\n

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One thing this program has done is teach me a lot about global health, especially issues young women face. When girls there menstruate, they don\u2019t have access to feminine hygiene products so they use dirty rags, and they\u2019re unable to attend school. I thought, if menstruation is getting in the way of these girls receiving an education, maybe we can come up with an affordable sanitary pad that can make it easier for them to attend school.<\/p>\n

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I met a woman in California last year who takes extra fabrics from her clothing design studio and makes pants and sends them to Kenya. And I thought, why can\u2019t we do that with pads for girls? We could raise money for the supplies, which would be proper fabric that would last a long time and could be washed properly. The pads would be made by volunteers here and then sent to the women in Kenya so when it\u2019s that time of the month, there is no reason to miss school. I hope we can get this program started soon.<\/p>\n

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The pen pal program has made a huge impact on my life, and it has changed my career plans. Before, I had a narrow mindset about what a career in medicine could offer. My goal is still to attend medical school, but I don\u2019t want to practice in an American hospital. I want to see and help people in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n

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Reposted with permission from NASSP\u2019s\u00a0School of Thought\u00a0blog: https:\/\/www.nassp.org\/2021\/10\/20\/a-pen-pal-program-expands-students-horizons\/. \u00a0 _____________________________________________________ I was a junior at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley, CA when COVID-19 hit. After classes moved online, I missed talking to my friends in person, and I was really bored. I was also curious about what life during the pandemic was like […]<\/p>\n Read More \u2192<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_eb_attr":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Wafa-Khan-portrait-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44151"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44151"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44162,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44151\/revisions\/44162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nyamboyotechnical.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}