My life-changing journey would not have been possible without funding from the Schull Yang International Experience Awards. I worked tirelessly over summer 2017 to raise enough funds to cover the field study, and I hardly managed. I wanted to participate in McGill’s African Field Study Semester (AFSS) because I dream of becoming an international journalist, and the funds from the Schull Yang International Experience Awards allowed me to do just that.
The AFSS aims to give students field-based education that broadens perspectives far beyond classroom capacity. As an English literature and environment double major, my main interest is in science journalism. We took five courses in the field, which all pertained to environmental science. These courses also included a variety of field visits to sites in different cities—reaching twelve cities in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania—such as the University of Nairobi, the District Hospital in Mbita, and the United Nations Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals in Arusha. As part of our course work and site visits, we learned about topics far beyond environmental science such as poverty, criminal justice, health, education, and the pitfalls of international aid/development. These topics all flushed out environmental issues in a more nuanced manner, but also spoke to the other field of journalism that I hope to pursue: crisis reporting.
I stayed overnight in a Maasai home in Maji Moto, Kenya. Sleeping in a modest mud hut with nothing but a small hole to release smoke out of the house (tears and coughing abound), walking to the watering hole and back carrying twenty-five pounds of water on my head, and watching the women work while the men did not, opened my eyes to a reality that I’ve only since read about. I spoke about HIV/AIDS with one member of the 28% of the population that has tested positive in Mbita, Kenya. He explained to me that the stigma around AIDS is what kills people because the resources to treat it are available but being labelled an outcast in society is more painful than death. I walked through destroyed farms and plots of land in Kibale National Park, Uganda. Hearing the screams of locals, their gunshots, and elephant noises from my bed at night opened my eyes to the damage wildlife conservation can bring, and why the members of the community often clash with National Parks authorities—and for good reason.
Through these unique experiences outside the classroom, I have not only changed the way I hope to pursue journalism, but have also changed my outlook on the world for the rest of my life (as cheesy as it sounds). At Lake Victoria in Jinja, Uganda, the fishing industry has exploded. New fishing laws and fines are outlined on signs, but they were outlined in English rather than in the local language. So, fisherman who are already incredibly poor were fined for fishing in certain parameters, although they had no idea the laws even existed. My own journalistic voice will aim to grasp the complexity of issues like these, and I now know how to choose a variety of interview subjects that give light to all sides of a story.
Without this award my education would have ended in March. However, with the funding, I have been granted the ability to engage in international journalism beyond the AFSS. I received a $3000 Pulitzer Fellowship from McGill, but it was revoked in April because both McGill and Pulitzer deemed Kenya too dangerous for a journalistic project (safety first). McGill offered to fly me home, but I wanted to see Africa outside of the field study bubble. So, I was left without work when the program ended—and it would have been without money if not for the Schull Yang International Experience Awards. However, because I could afford to stay and hunt for work, I will be starting my dream internship with the Sunday Tribune in Durban, South Africa with a key focus in both environmental and social justice journalism. It will lead to innumerable published pieces and irreplaceable journalistic work experience; and it’s all thanks to you.
Thank you for funding my education and giving me the privilege of staying in Eastern and Southern Africa for not three, but eight months. I wanted to apply the skills the AFSS provided me with to international journalism, and I would not have been able to do so without the Schull Yang International Experience Awards. I can tell you, as a writer, that words cannot express my gratitude in full.
