Hope in Uganda

Wilson College Master of Organizational Leadership student, Rebecca "Becky" Whigham spent four weeks in Uganda this summer studying food security and education from a global perspective. She did it as part of her guided study class called Studies in Global Food Security.

The experience, called Teach Ag Uganda, was a USDE Fulbright-Hays funded trip coordinated between Global Teach Ag Network (GTAN) and Penn State. Daniel Foster and Melanie Miller Foster, the founders of GTAN led the trip with partnership from Field of Hope. The goal was to pair educator teams from the United States with five schools in Uganda to develop a project focused on combatting food insecurity in that local area.

Agriculture teacher Okello Bonny, Becky, Entrepreneurship teacher Ateng Rachel, Penn Manor Agriculture teacher Mary Wurzbach, and Agriculture teacher Oluma Tom Richard.

Becky explained, "I had the privilege of traveling with other amazing educators from across the country and we collaborated with Field of Hope, a US based nonprofit that support agriculture programs in Uganda. We worked with agriculture teachers in Uganda on a poultry program that supported project -based learning related to agriculture."

The team of educators worked with St. Katherine Secondary School, an all-girls boarding school in Boroboro, Lira District, Uganda, to create a poultry project. It was facilitated by the school's poultry club and they will be raising four hundred egg laying hens using a deep litter system.

One day-hatchlings arriving for the poultry project.

Becky teaches middle school family and consumer science at Big Spring Middle School, and obtained her teaching certification in English after completing the Teacher Certification Pathways (TCP) program at Wilson College in 2010. (Fun fact - Becky even met her husband in a TCP class at Wilson.) As a Master of Organizational Leadership student, Becky is developing the skills to be an effective leader in her career and community. Part of the MOL mission is to  develop honorable leaders, effective communicators, and agents of justice. The Teach Ag Uganda trip met all these objectives.

Becky added, "It was an incredible experience, and I was so grateful to pursue graduate credit for the time spent. I have always had a passion for agriculture and there is a natural collaboration between FCS and Agriculture education—they need each other."

The team also went on a safari, an exciting opportunity to see animals in the wild!