President Morris will finish her trip to Kenya this week, returning from a journey commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first student program abroad to Nairobi. President Morris started off her trip visiting “The Compound,” the five-and-a-half acre gated community for St. Lawrence’s Kenya abroad program, which is located in Karin, a suburb of Nairobi.
The Kenya abroad program involves many excursions away from the Compound, including an urban and rural homestay. President Morris hopes to end her trip by journeying with the current SLU participants on their trip to the Amboseli region of Kenya, in which students will study the effects of increased tourism and demographic changes leading to a shift from primarily pastoral lifestyles.
President Morris has long since had aspirations of visiting Kenya, and SLU’s abroad program there. “One of my goals was that I got to know not only the campus and the people on the campus, to the extent that I can in our pandemic environment, but also that I get to know some of the schools most signature (abroad) programs.”
President Morris has visited SLU’s Adirondack Semester, the Sustainability Semester, and the New York City Semester since taking office. She hopes to be able to continue visiting our abroad programs, so that she can speak in a more personal way to prospective students, donors, and alumni about one of the main draws of St. Lawrence.
While there, President Morris hopes to interact with as much of the staff, students, and alumni as possible. One of the first events for the current president will be a reception with host families, employees, students and alumni to celebrate 50 years of SLU’s program, held on the compound. Some of the host families who will be in attendance will be celebrating more than ten years of work with SLU and participating students, having hosted St. Lawrence students for about a month on either a rural or urban homestay.
President Morris has a strong belief in the importance of abroad programs — after high school, the president took a gap year (though gap years were not nearly as common as they are now) with The American Field Service and was sent on an exchange program to Southern Austria, close to the border with what was then Yugoslavia and Italy. President Morris’ time in Austria had a profound impact on her, and has led to her office’s emphasis on abroad programs during her first few years as President of SLU.
Kenya itself is a particularly impactful program for many SLU students, both prospective and otherwise, and remains a major selling point for applicants interested in an exceptional abroad experience. “It really does strike me as the signature and very unique program that St. Lawrence offers. When I have been meeting with donors, alumni, and friends of the university, those that did the Kenya semester program have a connection to this place that is special — they have a connection to St. Lawrence and Canton, they have a connection to the Laurentian community, and they have a connection to St. Lawrence and Kenya — and I am very delighted to be a part of this.”