On getting back from her maiden mission to The Gambia, West Africa, Grenadian-born educator Dr. Ansha Clement says she sought to “ignite younger minds with the wonders of science schooling.”
“My journey was not nearly visiting colleges; it was to sow the seeds of curiosity and information, figuring out that schooling is the important thing to a brighter future,” Dr. Clement – a skilled principal, grasp trainer at Math for America, chemistry trainer and writer of “Child’s First Science: ABC” – instructed Caribbean Life completely on Saturday.
The Baldwin, Nassau County, Lengthy Island, resident was amongst main educators from the US and the UK, who undertook the nine-day mission, from Feb. 10-18, which sought, amongst different issues, to “lay the inspiration for a extra educated and expert workforce” in The Gambia.
Amongst different educators on the mission had been: William “Billy” Inexperienced, the 2023 New York State Trainer of the Yr and a grasp chemistry trainer at A. Philip Randolph Campus Excessive Faculty in New York Metropolis; and Alhassan Susso, the 2019 New York State Trainer of the Yr, who based the Namie Basis, a tribute to his beloved grandmother, devoted to advocating for educators and world schooling initiatives.
“The faculties I visited had been beacons of hope amidst financial challenges,” Dr. Clement mentioned. “Keen faces greeted me with curiosity and enthusiasm.”
She mentioned conversations about science schooling flowed “effortlessly”, as she shared anecdotes and insights, hoping to encourage the following era of scientists and innovators.
“However inspiration alone just isn’t sufficient; entry to assets is essential,” Dr. Clement mentioned. “That’s why I made it some extent to donate books to varied establishments, together with the Academics’ Union, Timbooktoo Bookstore and Starfish Worldwide.
“These humble contributions aimed to help science literacy at a younger age, offering college students with the instruments to discover and perceive the world round them,” she added, stating that two people she met stood out as “beacons of change and affect”.
“Their dedication to schooling and empowerment was palpable, inspiring me with their unwavering dedication to shaping a greater future for his or her communities,” the Grenadian-born educator mentioned.
She mentioned one such particular person was Mam-Yassin Sarr, a visionary educator, “whose ardour for ladies’s schooling was infectious.”
Dr. Clement mentioned Mam-Yassin Sarr is the co-founder and director of Starfish Worldwide, a nonprofit group “that seeks to advance humanity by way of women’ schooling and service-learning alternatives in The Gambia.”
“Within the phrases of Mam-Yassin, ‘I’m honored to have the ability to say that my educational and repair life has been targeted on sensible methods to play my half in serving to convey to fruition the perfect that the world is one nation and mankind its residents’”, Dr. Clement mentioned.
“It was empowering to see dwelling proof of how one individual can actively break limitations and pave the best way for a extra inclusive and equitable society,” she added.
Dr. Clement mentioned Sanna Camara, “a trailblazer in his personal proper,” was one other outstanding particular person she had the privilege of assembly on the mission.
She mentioned he’s a journalist who spent years in exile earlier than returning to his dwelling nation, The Gambia.
Dr. Clement mentioned Camara has over 20 years of expertise masking The Gambia as a reporter, workers author and editor of a number of publications and worldwide retailers.
Camara labored because the media officer and senior communications officer on the Workplace of the President of Banjul between 2018 and 2020, Dr. Clement mentioned.
She mentioned he at the moment works as an unbiased journalist and media marketing consultant, “constantly masking subjects from migration reporting to transitional justice in The Gambia.”
Through the mission, Dr. Clement mentioned US and UK educators, amongst different issues, visited a number of colleges; convened with their Gambian trainer colleagues and schooling officers in sharing observations and insights; performed skilled coaching for Gambian academics; held an awards ceremony on the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Convention Middle; toured the wealthy historical past of The Gambia; and discovered in regards to the tradition, “enabling them to raised help their immigrant college students, particularly these from West Africa.”
Dr. Clement mentioned the delegation additionally visited the “dwelling” of Kunta Kinte, a fictional character within the 1976 novel “Roots: The Saga of an American Household” by American writer Alex Haley.
“Kunta Kinte was primarily based on one in every of Haley’s ancestors, a Gambian man who was born round 1750, enslaved, and brought to America the place he died round 1822,” mentioned Wikipedia, the free on-line encyclopedia. “Haley mentioned that his account of Kunta’s life in Roots is a mix of reality and fiction.”
Dr. Clement mentioned “Child’s First Science: ABC” – her first youngsters’s e-book that was launched in Brooklyn final Christmas – was obtainable on the Timbuktu Bookstore, the most important bookstore in The Gambia, and at The Nationwide Library.
In getting the chance to journey to The Gambia, she mentioned she was in a position to “observe and expertise new instructional settings, construct relationships with nice educators from around the globe,” and created “an area” for her to be “curious, reflective and explorative of the impression and variations” that she will make “globally, particularly within the Caribbean.”
Dr. Clement – who earned her Physician of Schooling (Ed. D) in organizational management, with emphasis on organizational improvement, from Grand Canyon College – mentioned the mission helped her to raised “develop an understanding of objectives for instructional programs, and the perfect methods for growth and development inside programs but in addition inside stakeholders of these instructional programs.”
As well as, she mentioned the journey helped her to “exhibit integrity, develop specificity behind visions and be compassionate to encourage all stakeholders.”
She mentioned it was her “first step to creating systemic change globally, socially and culturally,” stating that, as a way to be a transformational chief, one needs to be “self-aware, genuine, in a position to collaborate (and) construct networks to affect optimistic change.”
“As I bid farewell to The Gambia, I carried with me recollections of smiles and laughter, eyes alight with curiosity and hope, and the humbling experiences of the origins of the slave commerce from visiting Kunta Kinteh Island and Jufureh Island,” Dr. Clement mentioned.
“My journey was a reminder that the facility of schooling is aware of no bounds and that, by investing within the minds of tomorrow, we will create a brighter and extra affluent future for all,” she added. “I take these experiences again to my dwelling nation of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique as a worldwide agent for change.”
