MSID Kenya

Program Details

My program is called MSID (Minnesota Studies in International Development) Kenya and is a program run by the University of Minnesota.  The cornerstone of the MSID programs (there are programs in India, Senegal, and Ecuador) is the combination of classroom learning and practical hands on experience, while discussing and learning about problems of development.  I will be taking 7 weeks of class in Nairobi (six more after last week) and then I will be placed in a rural area (still to be determined) where I will be participating in an internship and conducting research.  Hopefully, I will be placed in a school or an organization focused on education.  All of the MSID staff works for the University of Minnesota and have full time positions running the MSID program every semester.  We also have professors from local universities (mostly the University of Nairobi) that come to teach us.  We use classroom space at a local church within walking distance of all of our homestays.  This semester, we have sixteen people (12 girls and 4 boys) in our group.  We all take two classes together (one about the history of Kenya and one about international development) and then we split up in between different level Kiswahili classes and different topic interest classes.  I am in beginner Kiswahili and am on the Education & Literacy track.  The rest of my fellow students are disbursed between the Social Services, Public Health, Environment, and Business tracks.