Second-year Malcolm X College student Lakeith Lewis said his trip to Kenya last month seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime.
“My mind was so blown away to travel and get a new perspective historically, culturally, environmentally,” the computer science student said. “It was a phenomenal experience.”
That’s the impact organizers of the trip to Kenya hoped for when they created the itinerary. From March 15 through 24, 13 African American male students from Malcolm X College traveled to Kenya for free to learn about culture, identity and heritage. For many of them, international travel was a first.
“It’s not the first time that Malcolm X has done study abroad programs, but it’s the first time that we’ve done a program of this size and magnitude with this focus,” said David Sanders, President of Malcolm X College.
When Malcolm X College received its retention data in 2021, though 72% of students came back to school semester after semester, only 57% of African American males returned to the college, Sanders said.
So, Sanders formed a mentoring program for African American men, partnering students with faculty members who look like them for a semester. He said that, at the end of the semester, the school’s retention rate for students in the program was 93%.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, of the 7th District, which encompasses the Austin and Garfield Park neighborhoods of Chicago, read about the program’s success and encouraged Malcom X College to apply for funding from Congress.
The college received $1 million, half of which is sponsoring five trips to African countries, including the recent one to Kenya.
“When we were talking to the students, they said they really didn’t know who they were, that society was trying to define who they were through their actions and behaviors, the way they were being treated, or the way that society was portraying them,” Sanders said, “We felt that this would be an opportunity for them to get back to the homeland, to see their roots, where they came from.”
Students from the mentoring program were invited to apply to travel to Africa for free and take a corresponding course for class credit, as long as they had at least a 2.0 grade point average and no active forms of discipline.
After four orientation sessions, the 13 students packed their bags, got on a plane and traveled to six heritage sites and several Kenyan communities, each coming back with their own perspective from the trip.
The students’ stories
Damian Wright — who’s focusing on financial business in his first year at Malcolm X College and grew up in East Garfield Park — said he went on the trip to Kenya to take advantage of the free opportunity to see a new country, and because his dad said it would be beneficial to experience environments outside of Chicago.
“He’s really pushed me to get out and try and see the world, and that’s something I’ve always wanted to do for myself,” Wright said.
King Navy is studying psychology, in his second year at Malcolm X College and also lives on Chicago’s West Side. He said he’s always wanted to go to Africa. The height of his trip was Kenya’s coast, where he said the students got the chance to interact with their tour guides more.
“I would have my little side conversations with them about culture, vision, all these other things” Navy said.
Another one of his favorite parts was toward the end of the trip, when the group visited “a poor part of Kenya,” said Navy, who wants to help at-risk youth in the future.
“The living conditions weren’t the best, but they also weren’t upset or crying,” Navy said. “They had a very uplifting, upbeat tempo.”
“The place where a lot of people thought I would be stressed out the most was actually the most peaceful to me,” Wright said of the same part of Kenya, “just because I grew up, I shouldn’t say ‘in that,’ but similar conditions.”
Wright said he also enjoyed interacting with his peers to understand their mindsets and how they experienced Kenya.
From Kenya to Chicago
When asked what lessons or values the students brought back with them from Kenya, Navy said his long-term goals included learning about how other people move through the world, their perceptions, and how they think about American culture.
“I’d like to keep exploring that, making sure that I learn as much about psychology outside of the states’ norms and learning how other people view it,” Navy said. He added that it was difficult to compare the two places because Kenya and Chicago are not alike.
“It’s a very difficult thing to try to bring back some of those cultural norms over there back to Chicago because we’re, for lack of better words, built different,” Navy said. “They have to lean on each other for things, for basic necessities,” he added, while Americans can often buy what they want when they want it. “A lot of times, it can seem or feel like crabs in a bucket. We’re so competitive that, a lot of times, we lose sight of that camaraderie.”
“Everybody out here is kind of doing things for themselves,” Wright agreed. “I don’t think enough people realize, especially in African American communities and Hispanic communities, how much we can build when we work together.”
Wright added that he learned to be more open to moments that present themself to him.
“Moving forward, the one thing I can say is choosing to act on opportunity. I think there’s not enough of that done here in America,” Wright said. “I’ve been in situations where all you have to do is survive, and you couldn’t think about being sad. And I don’t think enough living is done in a lot of people’s lives, it’s kind of just surviving.”
“Just because you’re from somewhere doesn’t mean you have to stay somewhere,” Wright added — a sentiment that Lewis has already considered.
“Being an IT professional, I would love to expand my horizons into another career field, in another continent,” Lewis said. After returning from Kenya, he said he downloaded the Rosetta Stone app on his phone to start learning Spanish, and wants to learn Swahili.
Learning new languages works toward cultural competency, one of Malcom X College’s three goals when organizing these trips to Africa, Sanders said, along with student retainment and civic engagement.
“From my perspective, each one of these young men represents a power in and of themselves. But I don’t think that power has been revealed or that they’ve really reached their true destiny until you remove the barriers that stop them from getting there,” Sanders said. “Each person can make a difference, but it first starts with you seeing yourself as having the ability to make that difference.”
