Cincinnati, OH – December 3, 2015 – Every day at Saint Ursula Academy, students are challenged to “build a better world”. Amy Schloss ’16 of Hyde Park took this challenge to heart over her summer break by spending three weeks in Tanzania where she taught English classes, renovated classrooms, built desks, and planted gardens.
Amy is grateful for her experience and calls this trip a life-changing experience. Her compassion for those less-fortunate has grown, her appreciation for other cultures has been nurtured, and her college and career path have been influenced by her service in Global Leadership Adventures.
Amy recently answered a few questions about her trip and her plans for the future:
What organization sponsored this trip?
I was fortunate to travel to Tanzania with an organization called Global Leadership Adventures(GLA). It is sort of like a Peace Corps for high school students. It sends students to Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America for life-changing volunteer and cultural emersion trips each summer.
How did you become involved?
One of my main extracurricular activities during the school year is volunteering with local kids through tutoring programs such as Saint Ursula Academy’s Bulldog Buddies and coordinating an after school program at a local homeless shelter. I find great joy in doing service for others as I feel it allows me to step back from the daily routine of school and such. I always try to fill my summer time with something meaningful. Freshman year I attended a camp, and sophomore year I attended Northwestern University’s Center for Talent Development Summer Program. I knew the summer between my junior and senior year I wanted to do something that would really give me an opportunity to learn about myself and a part of the world I’d never experienced. After much research and some pretty good persuasion skills on my part, I convinced my parents that this experience would be valuable for me.
Why did you choose to travel to Tanzania?
About a year ago, I wasn’t even sure how to pronounce Tanzania or where to find it on a map. It was a completely foreign place to me. I found the prospect of going somewhere so different and so foreign such an intriguing idea. Also, after reviewing the program details of many of the countries offered within GLA’s program, Tanzania best suited my interests.
What did you do while you were in Tanzania?
In Tanzania, I completed approximately 70 hours of service. Our main service project was working in a Primary-6 classroom at Patandi Primary School, a public, co-ed school. In teams of four, we taught 2-hour English classes every day to 30-40 6th graders. Although Tanzania’s official language is Swahili, their official language of higher education is English. Therefore, they are required to pass an English exam in order to enter Secondary School, which is similar to a high school in the US. In addition to teaching, we renovated 5 classrooms within this school and helped to build and repair over 200 desks. We also worked at Aston’s Vision, a local orphanage in the village of Tengeru where I was staying. Because this orphanage has a shortage of fresh foods, we worked to clear out a large portion of land, till the soil, and plant different fruits and vegetables. While the service was definitely the most rewarding aspect of the experience, we also took part in many different cultural emersion activities. These included learning some basic Swahili, investigating public health issues within Tanzania and Africa overall, and visiting the Maasai Tribe, a nomadic tribe living in a large portion of East Africa.
What are your future plans with Tanzania and/or GLA?
My plans for the future have changed a lot since I went on this trip. Although I don’t yet know where I will be attending college next year, all of my potential schools will allow me to study Nursing with a global health focus. After undergraduate studies I intend to serve in the Peace Corps, hopefully in an area similar to or in Tanzania. In addition, I hope to receive a Masters Degree in Public Health so I can work to improve the health systems of the developing world. I am so passionate about global outreach and I am so anxious to continue work in this field in the years to come!
What did you learn from your travel abroad?
To say the least, Tanzania changed my life. I can’t even begin to explain how much this experience has taught me about myself and also the world around me. I am a more culturally aware person and I think the greatest gift this blessing has given me is a true appreciation for all that I have. It’s easy to see extreme poverty behind a TV or phone screen. It’s hard to be called to action because it’s a problem that seems so far away and impossible to solve. However, after witnessing this part of the world, which is often overlooked, I feel so moved to make a difference, however small it may be. “Tuko Pamoja” is a phrase in Swahili that I think perfectly describes what I’ve learned through this experience. It means “we’re together”. Despite the difference in ethnicity, birthplace, religion, culture, etc. between my Tanzanian students and me, our similar motives to learn and make the world a better place is such a unifying force.
How are you sharing this experience with students at Saint Ursula Academy?
Within Ms. Porter’s Contemporary Issues in Women’s Health class, I created a movement called SheWhoLearns to spread awareness about the lack of education available to many young girls around the world. Girls in Tanzania are often turned away from education after their primary schooling years. The SheWhoLearns project attempts to highlight the opportunities available for girls who receive an education. My friend from the trip and I are sponsoring a female student named Joyce. Our goal is to ensure she makes it through secondary school and breaks the cycle of poverty within her family.
Amy plans to continue to share her experience in hopes of inspiring others to pursue their passion to help others. Her fundraising efforts and SheWhoLearns project help her live the Saint Ursula mission of “building a better world.”
St. Ursula Academy is a Catholic, college-preparatory, secondary school for young women known for academic excellence and rich tradition. St. Ursula welcomes students from more than 70 grade schools in the Greater Cincinnati area. In 2002 the Academy was recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a Blue Ribbon School. The campus, located at 1339 E. McMillan Street in East Walnut Hills has been the home of St. Ursula Academy and Convent since 1910. The Class of 2015 earned college scholarships totaling more than $19-million.
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Photo caption: Saint Ursula Academy senior Amy Schloss of Hyde Park works with students from Patandi Primary School in Tanzania as part of her participation in Global Leadership Adventures