2025 Engaging Africa Travel Experience
Community Engagement and Environmental Change in Kenya
~ June 28 to July 10, 2025 ~
Karibuni Nyumbani (Welcome Home)
For more than 50 years, St. Lawrence Kenya semester program has built a unique connection with East Africa. Our 2025 trip offers alumni an exclusive chance engage with this rich history and contemporary focus of the Kenya Program. Led by renowned Kenya program faculty and staff, participants will explore the program themes of culture, environment, and development through an interactive and invigorating experience based on the traditions of the KSP’s past and present.
Trip Highlights:
- Explore Kenya’s diverse cultures and environments
- Stay on the St. Lawrence Nairobi Campus
- Meet Kenyan based alumni, and program partners
- Engage with rural homestay families
- View student internship sites
- Visit world class sites of wildlife conservation
- Experience the unique the SLU-Kenya connection
Itinerary (subject to minor changes):
If you would like a .pdf version of the itinerary and trip information, please email bknauf@stlawu.edu.
Participants will be picked up at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Kenya Program staff and transferred to SLU’s campus at 91 Miotoni road in the leafy Nairobi suburb of Karen. You will enjoy a two-night stay and a relaxing introduction to campus life and Kenya’s cosmopolitan capital city. You will be able to experience the student perspective 1st hand on our Nairobi campus.
- Overnight on the KSP campus---live/relive the student experience
- Meet with Nairobi host communities and alumni in the region and explore the city through a student perspective.
- Relaxing afternoon and walking tour of the KSP neighborhood.
- Dinner at the KSP campus-courtesy of Chef Isaiah
We will travel west through the Great Rift Valley and down into the Lake Victoria basin for a three-night visit with our rural homestay families in Kakamega. We will visit with host-families and explore the challenges and innovations of rural Kenyan life.
- Full day visit with rural host families in small groups
- A day long exploration of Kakamega rain forest
- Overnights at Sosa Cottages or equivalent
We will travel east and back into the heart of the Great Rift Valley for a two night stay at Lake Elementaita—a soda lake renowned for its flamingo population.
- Exploration of the lake shore environment and conservation/environmental issues of the Rift Valley.
- Overnight at Elementaita Serena or equivalent.
Moving from the Rift Valley to the Mt. Kenya highlands, we will explore wildlife conservation and development issues in Laikipia country. Community and private conservancies dominate this region and our two night stay will expose us to different approaches to wildlife conservation and development challenges. Laikipia is also a region where students frequently complete internships on conservation and development issues offering a rich terrain to engage with these topics first hand.
- A two day visit to Ol Pejeta conservancy or equivalent
- Morning and Afternoon game drives
- Two night stay at Serena Sweetwaters or equivalent
Heading north from Laikipia, we will drop down into the arid north for a two night visit to the world renowned Samburu national reserve. Based around the meandering Ewaso Nyiro river, the mountainous rocky terrain of Samburu offers a picturesque and rich environment for wildlife viewing. Samburu is also home to many pastoralist communities and we will be able to engage with conservation and development issues from a diverse local perspective.
- Morning and Afternoon Game drives in Samburu
- Overnight at Samburu Sopa or equivalent
We will return to Nairobi from Samburu on Wednesday for a celebration dinner for our last night together. Shopping a small excursions in Nairobi will be organized for trip participants on Thursday before an evening/overnight departure from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport back home
Trip Leaders:
Dr. Matt Carotenuto: is professor of history at St. Lawrence and the Hanson Associate Dean of International and Intercultural Studies. He has worked at St. Lawrence since 2008 and is also an alumnus of the Kenya program ’98. His research has long explored the politics of identity in Kenya and he is the co-author of Obama and Kenya: Contested Histories and the Politics of Belonging. He has also coordinated the St. Lawrence African studies program and is the on-campus coordinator for the Kenya program.
Dr. Abdelwahab Sinnary: has been the Academic Director of the KSP since 2004. He is Sudanese by birth and has done his graduate training and all subsequent work in Kenya. As a conservation biologist, he has worked closely with local and international wildlife conservation groups such as the Machakos Wildlife Forum and the Kenya Wildlife Service. Prior to joining the KSP he was a director for the School for Field Studies Program in Kenya.
Lina Karingi: is the Director for Finance and Administration. She joined the Program in 2002. Lina’s undergraduate and post graduate training is in Economics, Business Administration, and Law. She worked in diverse sectors before joining St. Lawrence, at the International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), the Kenya Finance Bank, and Kuona Trust. She is a full member of the Institute of Human Resources Management.
Dr. Michael Wairungu: joined the program in 2018 as an Assistant Director of Student Life and Academic Instruction. He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistic Anthropology from the University of Virginia. Prior to joining the KSP, he was an Assistant Professor, and coordinator of Swahili at Northwestern University. He also taught Swahili and various courses in Linguistic Anthropology at Stanford University, University of Virginia, and the University of the South. Besides teaching, Michael worked as a curriculum designer and specialist of Swahili at the Diplomatic Language Services in the U.S.
Njau Kibochi: is the program’s longtime transportation coordinator and has been a friend and mentor to hundreds of alumni. He is also an avid birder.
Cost (airfare not included):
$5,200 per person (for double occupancy/sharing)
$5,800 per person (for single occupancy off-campus)
Maximum of 25 Laurentian participants - family members above age 13 are welcome to join.
Housing Information
Some shared accommodations (bathrooms) may be required on the Nairobi campus. All other accommodations are in 3-4 star lodging in single or double occupancy.
Additional Information
All meals and non-alcoholic drinks during meals are included throughout the trip. Cost is also inclusive of local travel/health care insurance coverage during the duration of the trip. Bottled/filtered water will also be provided for drinking.
Registration
An initial deposit of $500 per person must be received to reserve your spot on a first-come, first-serve basis. Full payment is due by March 1, 2025. Any remaining funds after expenses from the trip will be directed as a gift to the Kenyan Memorial Scholarship and Engaging Africa Initiative. If the University cancels this experience, we will work with travelers on a future visit to Kenya or work to refund the full or partial deposit amounts as circumstances allow.
Questions?
Please contact Barb Knauf via email at bknauf@stlawu.edu or by calling 315-229-1847, or email Dr. Matt Carotenuto at mcarotenuto@stlawu.edu.
