
The Engaging Africa Initiative
Celebrating the St. Lawrence Tradition of African Studies Excellence in Canton and Abroad
In January 1972, St. Lawrence sent its first student group to East Africa. This pilot trip to Kenya blossomed into the Kenya Semester Program by 1974 and helped establish SLU as a national leader in study abroad in Africa. Since 1972, over 2300 students have participated on our semester and summer programs in Kenya, with hundreds more studying in Africa via the France Program’s component in Senegal or summer courses in Ethiopia and other parts of the continent. With multiple opportunities to study Africa issues via one of our vibrant off-campus programs, many students come back and continue to engage with Africa through courses and research opportunities sponsored by the African Studies Program.
2024 marks the 50th anniversary of our Kenya semester program and provides an important time to assess SLU’s future engagement with Africa more broadly and examine the ways we can continue a traditional of excellence in African Studies both on and off-campus. As a national leader of integrating African Studies into the liberal arts, St. Lawrence embarked on an ambitious campaign to invest in Africa at SLU by creating a permanent restricted endowment called “Engaging Africa” which offers annual support for our efforts moving forward.
In recent years, our faculty and students have been busy with a number of new initiatives. For instance we have piloted new summer courses in Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda, launched an official blog for the Kenya program, helped students present at prestigious research conferences and entered into a multi-year partnership with the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C just to name a few.
With a tradition of building mutually beneficial relationships with our African partners, we aim to continue to expand opportunities for SLU students to engage with Africa through coursework, internships and research both on and off-campus. The Engaging Africa endowment continues to grow with your support and will provide annual support to help us achieve the following goals.
Alumni support has already helped students participate in life changing opportunities since we launched Engaging Africa. In the past two years alone, we have been able to provide summer scholarships for students, bring dynamic African scholars to campus and expand internship options in Kenya. Help us continue expand our endowed support for African studies and African students in honor of the Kenya program's 50th anniversary to ensure St. Lawrence remains a national leader in African engagement.
Engaging Africa Goals:
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Dr. Madeleine Wong and Adwoa Boateng’19 conducting summer research in Ghana.

- Reciprocity: African Students at SLU: One of the ways St. Lawrence distinguishes itself in our commitment to African studies is our efforts to not only send students to Africa, but to recruit Africa’s best and brightest to SLU. Since the early 1980s, annual scholarships have been awarded to Kenyan students with dozens more students from across the African continent coming to SLU via the United World Colleges or other scholarship opportunities. Many of our African graduates have gone onto distinguished careers across the continent, bringing their talents back to serve the needs of their own communities. Thus we aim to raise additional scholarship support for African students to attend SLU to ensure that St. Lawrence is part of nurturing the next generation of African leaders.
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2018-2019 CLR James Lecture
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Spring 2016 IDS placements
How Can You Help
Since 1972, our alumni have embodied St. Lawrence’s reputation as a national leader in African Studies and many young graduates use their St. Lawrence backgrounds to connect professionally to the African continent in many ways. Distinguished graduates have gone on to found important development organizations, lead environmental conservation initiatives, and continued to invest a great deal of time and energy on projects across Africa. Others credit their African experiences as a fundamental part of their personal and professional development in business, medicine and a number of fields far from the continent. We know how important these memories and experiences are to our alumni and thus we hope you will consider supporting this important initiative to ensure countless others will benefit from a vibrant St. Lawrence connection with Africa for many years to come.

To Donate: click the link below and choose the best donation plan for you and choose your gift amount. In the Area of Support drop down menu select Write-In and then type in Engaging Africa Initiative. If you would like to learn more about other giving options e.g., stocks, pledging over multiple years, estate provisions, please contact Barb Knauf, University Advancement, at bknauf@stlawu.edu or call at 315-229-1847.