News

By Karen Chambless

Last spring, the Lee University Helen DeVos College of Education (HDCOE) sent
eight students to Makeni, Sierra Leone, to complete two months of student
teaching. The group consisted of Casey Bryson, Maggie Chambers, Sarah Foster,
Brooke Potteiger, Lacey Richards, Rebekah Stiegler, Josh Swem, and Emily
Tobin. Their trip was in fulfillment of the student teaching requirement for
an education degree.

Dr. Gary Riggins, professor of education at
Lee, sponsored the trip, recruiting students in September and October. He
first journeyed to Sierra Leone in the 1970s to open the first Secondary
School in the Koya Chiefdom in Songo. Inspired and motivated by this
experience, Riggins later arranged Lee’s student teaching program that sends
students to Ghana. He was able to return to Sierra Leone two years ago and,
after negotiating with church and school officials, organized this trip. This
is the first time that Lee has sent student teachers to Sierra Leone.

“Each of these eight student teachers has been, like me, deeply moved
by this experience,” said Riggins. “They have developed personal connections
with this forgotten corner of the world that will last a life time,” said
Riggins. “They lived with host families there and the men, women, and
children they lived with and taught over the course of nine weeks in Makeni
are never far from their minds.”

The group left the country on
March 1 and returned May 1. Since the Ebola outbreak reached Sierra Leone in
February, conditions were growing worse during the trip. Missionaries had been
evacuated by the beginning of April.

“We learned a lot about how
God provides, and how God protects,” said Casey Bryson, group leader and
recent Lee alum.

Each student taught a different class, ranging
from pre-K classes to elementary school “integrated arts and sciences” to
middle school subjects like math and language arts. Each class had 70
students, most of whom did not speak English well, according to Bryson.
Technological resources included one chalkboard for the teacher to write on,
as the students did not have books or writing utensils.

The group
worked in conjunction with a Church of God-sponsored school in Makeni. Lee
students stayed with host families in the city, specifically the homes of
Lamin Dumbuya, school headmaster; Augustin Conte, local pastor; and Titus
Kamara, chief of Makeni.

“The chief would often engage us in
conversation about a variety of topics,” said Bryson. “He would ask us
questions and teach his sons.”

While in Makeni, daily life for the
students consisted of waking up at dawn for breakfast, walking or riding a
motorcycle to school, teaching classes or observing other schools, playing
with the neighborhood children, and having dinner with host families. Since
there was no running water, water had to be carried from wells to houses. A
general lack of paved roads also made transportation difficult.

The
group used weekends as chances to explore the surrounding areas and cultures,
visiting the Roquel River to swim in the rapids, Bureh Beach, a mountain
called Mena Hill, and Independence Square in Makeni. They went to the capital
city, Freetown, twice. On Friday nights, Conteh would lead the community in
Bible studies at the school, where all church services are held while the
congregation’s sanctuary is being built.

Makeni’s inhabitants come
from over 16 different tribes, each with its own culture. Most people in
Makeni (including the children) speak four languages to compensate for these
ethnic differences. It is the fourth largest city in Sierra Leone, and
despite growing Muslim and Christian populations, religious tolerance is
widely embraced.

“All of the group members graduated in May and
have gone on to their careers, but continue to pray for and support their
Makeni families,” said Riggins.

For more information about the
trip or the HDCOE, please contact Dr. Gary Riggins at [email protected].

PHOTOS: (right) The student teacher team is
pictured here (front row, l-r) Sarah Foster, Maggie Chambers, and Emily Tobin
(back row, l-r) Rebekah Stiegler, Brooke Potteiger, Lacey Richards, Casey
Bryson, and Josh Swem; (upper left) Potteiger is pictured here with her third
graders in front of her classroom in Makeni; (bottom left) Makeni
schoolchildren express their thanks for the team’s long journey with signs
that say “Thanks very much!” (Mo Mo Thank You!)