The Academic Enrichment Program (AEP) in which North students will be participating is a core component of Etinan Children’s Scholarship Foundation, Inc. (Formerly known as Dr. Ibokette’s Scholarship Foundation, it is incorporated in Nigeria under the name, Etinan Children’s Education Foundation, Inc). The Foundation provides various forms of assistance to a group of indigent and orphaned elementary school-age children in Etinan, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. This assistance includes medical and dental care services, a feeding program, and the provision of various items of clothing and school supplies. More specifically, the AEP is a three-week summer school that includes recreational and field trip-related activities. As is the case in many rural parts of Nigeria, the elementary school that these children attend operates with very limited resources and under several socio-economic constraints. The AEP provides these scholars, the school and teachers access to these much-needed resources and expertise. Student-participants in the trip will work with the Foundation’s “scholars” (30) and their teachers under the chaperons’ direct supervision and assist in a variety of the AEP activities. Their overall roles are like those of counselors-in-training (CIT) and student-teachers.
The overall outcomes of this trip have been that participants have experienced authentic cultural immersion in the context of the dynamics of a socio-cultural environment and pattern of life that are markedly different from theirs. Moreover, the NNISTN program’s focus on hands-on strategies for leadership, mentorship and community service provides participants with unique educational and emotional growth opportunities. In turn, participants also provide essential services to the host community and, more specifically, make essential, innumerable, and memorable contributions to the young scholars’ academic, social, and emotional growth. These are very symbiotic real-life and hands-on processes, experiences, and outcomes.
