Western Leadership Advantage and the Center for Service-Learning to Host Panel on Kenya and South Africa Trips

Western’s Leadership Advantage and the Center for Service-Learning will host a panel discussion on recent trips to Kenya and South Africa from 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday Nov. 16 in Communication Facility Room 110 on Western Washington University’s campus. The event is free and open to the public. Students and faculty will discuss their experiences with leadership styles in Kenya and South Africa, differences between U.S. and African leadership, personal leadership development from the trip, and creating effective community leadership across the globe. Audience members will have the chance to ask panelists questions. Twelve students participated in “Kenya: Field Studies and Collaborative International Service-Learning,” a nine-week course that included five and a half weeks volunteering in Kenya. Students studied at one of two projects sites: a boarding school in one of Kenya’s poorest districts, and a Maasai village near Mount Kilimanjaro. Fourteen students traveled to South Africa in Summer 2008 as part of “Race, Ethnicity and Class: Contesting Identities in Contemporary South Africa,” covering social forces and identity politics in post-apartheid South Africa. Faculty and staff members on the panel include Vernon Johnson, a Political Science professor, Kristi Tyran, a Management professor, and WWU’s Center for Service Learning Director Tim Costello. The mission of Western's Leadership Advantage (WLA) is to develop graduates who are well prepared to exercise responsible leadership in their chosen fields and careers and in their communities. For more information on the panel and Western’s Leadership Advantage, contact Jillian Morie (360) 650-4190 or Jillian.Morie@wwu.edu. For more information on the Center for Service Learning, contact Tim Costello at (360) 650-2503 or Tim.Costello@wwu.edu.