WISER

Program Engages WISER Students to Learn New Methods of Organic Gardening and Water Conservation as Integral Part of WISER Curriculum

WISER’s campus is now home to a beautiful fruit and vegetable garden created in collaboration with Development in Gardening (DIG), an innovative nonprofit organization that has historically created gardens for HIV treatment facilities in the Caribbean, Africa, and Central America.

DIG’s new model program at WISER represents their first garden to support the nutritional needs of a boarding school. DIG received funding from the International Youth Foundation and the Starbucks Foundation for the WISER garden.

The garden is the largest DIG has ever built, allowing experimentation with three different types of agricultural techniques: improved beds, raised beds, and field crops. The garden, planted in January, is already producing vegetables including yellow squash, much to the delight of WISER’s students who enjoyed trying this vegetable that has never been available in Murhuru Bay.

WISER will incorporate sustainable agriculture, nutrition, and entrepreneurship into the school’s curriculum to engage the students in the garden’s creation, maintenance, and production. Students have already begun to transfer their new skills and knowledge to their families and other community members, adding to their new status as role models as they give back to their village after just two months of classes at the WISER School.

Steve Bolinger, Co-Founder of DIG, personally supervised the garden’s building, working alongside a team of DIG’s volunteers and WISER’s students when they were not in classes. He reports, “ Working with the girls has been a great experience. They participated with much enthusiasm and learned the skills very quickly. We left the campus for a few days, and when we returned we found that they had completed some of the beds entirely through their own motivation. Needless to say, I was very impressed with their dedication and commitment to creating a garden that they will reap the benefits from on a daily basis.”

The WISER-DIG collaboration has broadened DIG’s concept of how a garden can have a positive impact on a community by educating and engaging youth. WISER and DIG plan to closely follow the garden’s role in the students’ nutrition and education.

Bolinger proclaims, “DIG WISER and REAP LIFE!” This article’s photograph indicates that WISER students proudly agree with his statement.

(Pictured Above: One of WISER’s students, Jocinter Bitter Oyuga, in the new campus garden with the first yellow squash grown in Muhuru Bay.)

All Students Receive Full Scholarships Through Generosity of WISER Donors

Highlights from this red-letter day are featured in a new video. Watch it now:

February 1, 2010 dawned brightly on the WISER campus in Muhuru Bay when Principal Dorcas Oyugi and the five inaugural teachers welcomed the Class of 2013 to Day One of classes.

Accompanied by their families, friends, and community members, 30 excited students—many being the first person in their family to attend secondary school– arrived at sunrise. They quickly moved to their dormitory rooms and received their personalized school lockers filled with uniforms, textbooks, school supplies, and personal care products.

Since the opening ceremony a few weeks ago, Principal Oyugi and her teachers have been readying the classrooms and lessons in anticipation of the students’ arrival.

Kiswahili/Geography teacher Grace Messopir remarked, “This is a once in a lifetime moment where we, together with the students, have become pioneers toward change.”

WISER proudly has the first and only white boards in the classrooms and the highest ratio of microscopes per student in the science laboratory—one for every two students—in any secondary school in Nyanza Province.

Each WISER teacher serves as a house advisor to six students. The teachers chose the names of the houses to inspire the students as individuals and teams. The houses wisely bear the names Magnificent, Mirror, Vivacious, Integrity, and Savvy.

Andy Cunningham, WISER’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, exclaimed in an email to his fellow Co-Founders Dr. Sherryl Broverman and Dr. Rose Odhiambo, “As I watched each girl walk into her classroom and sit at her own desk on her own chair, I began to imagine the possibilities that await all of us. Could we be looking at the first female Kenyan president? Absolutely! Could there be the next African Nobel Peace Prize winner in our midst? Absolutely!”

WISER continues the commitment to support all of our students with a full scholarship, even as each new class enters our school until we enroll 120 girls.

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Global Audience Welcomes First 30 WISER Scholars

Highlights from WISER’s Opening Ceremony on January 8 in Muhuru Bay, Kenya are featured in a new video. Watch it now:

Several thousand WISER supporters gathered on the WISER campus on January 8 to celebrate the Opening Ceremony and welcome 30 WISER Scholars in the first Class of 2013.

The students, ranging in age from 14 to 36 and having graduated from 11 primary schools throughout the region, will be on full scholarship—made possible through the generosity of WISER’s supporters. They will begin classes on February 1, led by WISER’s inaugural Principal Dorcas Oyugi and her new team of five teachers.

Ceremony guests included the Honorable Kenyan Minister of Immigration along with distinguished representatives from WISER partners and supporters Johnson & Johnson, Duke University (home to WISER co-founders Sherryl Broverman and Andy Cunningham), UNICEF, Utawala Academy (led formerly by Dorcas Oyugi), Egerton University (alma mater of co-founder Rose Odihambo), and Melindo University.

WISER extends its heartfelt thanks to all our supporters around the world for helping us fulfill the dreams of girls, and indeed the entire community, of Muhuru Bay. Your continued support and enthusiasm inspire us, and we count on your help as we prepare for the day when 120 girls will attend WISER in 2013.

After Five Years of Dreams and Plans, 30 WISER Students to be Introduced to 1,500 Ceremony Attendees

This week WISER Co-founders Sherryl Broverman, Rose Odihambo, and Andy Cunningham along with many fellow WISER NGO Board Members welcome over 1,500 guests from Africa, Europe, and North America in celebration of the school’s opening and selection of the first 30 WISER students.

Days before the ceremony, the WISER selection committee, including new Principal Dorcas Oyugi, held interviews with 51 finalists as the last phase of the application process for the first class of students. Those 30 girls, all of whom will receive full sponsorship to attend WISER at absolutely no cost to them or their families, create the centerpiece of all the activities on January 8. They will begin their classes on February 1.

Pendo Simon Warioba, a student from Muhuru Bay finishing secondary school in another part of the province, declares, “As a girl child, we are very proud of what WISER has done to build a school to enlighten girls who have always been behind. In most communities, girls have been denied the right to education and exposed to early marriages. We are grateful for WISER. Let’s join hands together and support WISER!”

Ceremony attendees include many WISER partners and supporters from corporations, schools, and others NGOs including Johnson & Johnson, MassInsight, SolarAID, UNICEF, and The American School in Switzerland. Students and teachers from Muhuru Bay make up an important part of the ceremony audience to welcome a new private boarding school for girls to their community, along with the District Commissioner of the Kenyan Government and various embassy delegations.

The celebration features remarks by WISER’s co-founders and local, national, and international leaders in education and development as well as entertainment by school and church choirs and traditional dance by the village elders.

Elpalet Owino Ogwand, Chief of Southeast Muhuru Bay, comments in anticipation of WISER’s opening, “I have watched and participated as the project has touched all aspects of our lives in Muhuru in terms of health, economic, and education empowerment. WISER has changed my ways of all approaching issues in my work with the community.”

Building on an exciting new tradition of women and sports in Muhuru Bay, the celebration ends with a soccer match between women of Egerton University, Dr. Rose Odihambo’s alma mater and where she is on the faculty, and the women of Muhuru Bay.

Follow the Opening Ceremony with live updates on Twitter @WISERSchool.

Check back at www.wisergirls.org for Opening Ceremony highlights including photos, videos, and transcripts.

(Pictured above: WISER campus view with the Principal’s House, guesthouse, and research center.)

250 Candidates from Africa, Australia, and Europe Respond to Organization’s Mission and Opportunity to Make Girls’ Dreams Come True in Muhuru Bay

WISER’s leadership team in Kenya, guided by Board of Directors Vice Chair Dr. Rose Odihambo, Executive Director Andy Cunningham, and new Principal Dorcas Oyugi, met in Muhuru Bay in early December to interview candidates for the inaugural five teachers at the school. From the extraordinary number of candidates applying for the positions, 28 of them were invited to participate in the interviews on WISER’s new campus.

Andy Cunningham, who is also one of WISER’s Co-Founders, commenting on the candidates’ qualifications said, “WISER has attracted some of the most dedicated, diverse and experienced teachers across the country who have demonstrated measurable academic growth and distinct innovation in their previous teaching posts. They each are determined to make history in Muhuru Bay as a member of a pioneering team of teachers, charged with the responsibility of inspiring our girls to live, learn and become WISER global leaders. I am confident they will surpass our expectations.”

WISER is committed to establishing a ratio of 1 teacher for every 12 girls at the school, where 30 students will begin classes in January 2010. Five teachers will be recruited for Year One to cover all 13 subjects in the Kenyan secondary school curriculum as well as additional subjects critical to WISER’s mission. Those include sciences (math, physics, chemistry, and biology), humanities (geography, history, and religious education), languages (English, Kiswahili, French, Chinese, and Sign Language), and technical (business studies, computer studies, and agriculture). Additional teachers will be recruited as more classes of 30 girls begin studying at WISER over the next three years. By 2013, WISER’s total enrollment will be 120 students.

Along with review of the candidates’ professional backgrounds, WISER seeks to understand how each teacher would respond to its mission and the opportunity to make girls’ dreams come true in Muhuru Bay.

Gillian Dolce, a WISER volunteer in Kenya who coordinated the search process on behalf of WISER’s leadership team, saw first-hand in the applications how the idea and promise of WISER is spreading and appealing to teachers across Kenya. Reflecting on her work, she commented, “It is so inspiring to imagine some of these applicants in the classroom at WISER, changing lives and expanding minds so that the girls of Muhuru Bay have every opportunity to realize their own potential and make an impact on their world.”

WISER’s new teachers will join Principal Oyugi, moving to the newly-constructed campus in just a few weeks and preparing to welcome our students. They will be selected in early January, once their scores on the Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exam, which all Kenyan students take after primary school to determine secondary school eligibility, are available for WISER’s evaluation. 115 girls have already begun the application process, completing the essay, personal information, and recommendations parts of the application. The top student candidates will also have personal interviews with WISER’s leadership team.

(Pictured above: Students from Egerton University help prepare the campus, which will include offices and meeting space for teachers.)

International Search Fulfills Organization’s Dream as School is Poised to Open in January 2010

WISER’s Board Chair and Co-Founder Dr. Sherryl Broverman, who led the search process with Dr. Rose Odihambo, WISER’s Board Vice Chair and Co-Founder and Andy Cunningham, WISER’s Executive Director and Co-Founder, commented on the appointment, “Dorcas Oyugi fulfills WISER’s dream to have a top-notch educator and administrator as our inaugural Principal. She enjoys prominent status as an education leader in Kenya, with her role at the national level in education reform and a demonstrated commitment to international partnerships. She has the ability to be a stellar role model for girls at WISER. We are extremely pleased that she has agreed to be our Principal and look forward to working together to creating new opportunities for girls in Muhuru Bay.”

Principal Oyugi, who holds a Master of Education Administration degree from Kenyatta University and a Bachelor of Psychology Counseling degree from the University of Nairobi, comes to WISER from Utawala Academy in Nairobi where she has served as Principal since 1994. She has been a recipient of the Head of State Commendation for Exemplary Public Service, which is awarded by the President’s Office to 50 Kenyan leaders each year.

She has extensive family ties to the region around Muhuru Bay, giving her invaluable insights into its people and community partnerships like WISER that seek to address education, health, and economic challenges and provide answers to them.

Principal Oyugi is already working with WISER’s Board on a part-time consulting basis until she begins her appointment in January 2010 when the school opens, helping to select the school’s first 5 teachers in early December and 30 students in early January. Reflecting on her new role, she declared, “WISER is a dream come true to the pioneer girls that will be admitted to this great Institute and indeed to women in Muhuru Bay. I’m excited to provide transformational leadership to influence positive change and empower these girls to effectively take up their own leadership roles in society.”