The first Americans Alice Lenanyokie ’07 ever saw in the town where she attended high school, in the Samburu District in Kenya, were St. Lawrence students.  “They were on St. Lawrence’s program in Kenya and had home stays in town,” she says.  “Getting to know them made me want to learn more about St. Lawrence.”

She learned about the international programs St. Lawrence offers, the small size of the University and its classes and community, and its generosity in offering her a full scholarship. These convinced her that St. Lawrence was the right place for her. 

“St. Lawrence went beyond my expectations,” Alice recalls about her first days on campus.  “It was like a big family.  I felt like I belonged here; I never felt out of place.”

Alice, an economics and environmental studies major, headed Down Under in spring 2006, to study on St. Lawrence’s Australia program.  She says, “It was totally different from the United States and Kenya and gave me the chance to explore a lot of opportunities in a new setting.”

While in Australia, Alice received a St. Lawrence travel grant to go to Innisfail, a small town north of Queensland, and study the impact a tropical cyclone had on the community when it hit in March 2006, causing severe damage to structures, crops and plantations.  “I wanted to see how they responded to such an environmental calamity,” she says.

When Alice is on campus, she keeps busy with many campus jobs.  One of her favorites is being a teaching assistant for Swahili classes.  “I get to meet a lot of people and help them,” she says. “That is very satisfying to me.”

She also enjoys her role as a community assistant, which she has been doing for two years.  “I like getting to know people and interacting with them,” she says.  “My residents and I help each other out, and I learn a lot from them.”