Like many college seniors, Kristen Conroy is unsure what career path she’ll take after graduation.
Her international studies and environmental & ecological science double major has opened the doors to countless possibilities. Hoping the correct choice will manifest itself, Conroy will be moving to Kenya in June as part of the Princeton in Africa program.
Princeton in Africa is an independent nonprofit organization that requires a one-year commitment. Conroy, who knew she wanted to work abroad, said she sees this as a perfect opportunity to exercise the skills she learned at Elon University and learn more about herself and her own goals.
“I’m hoping to have a little bit more direction as to what I want to do after,” Conroy said. Conroy will be working in the Nyumbani Village. Nyumbani, which is the Swahili word for “home,” is a village where adults whose children have died of HIV or AIDS provide foster care for children whose parents have died of HIV or AIDS. They are divided into family units consisting of 10 children per adult, the equivalent of a typical family unit in this region of Africa. The village also has three primary schools, a high school and a poly-tech school. One of the goals of the village is to become economically, socially and environmentally sustainable.
This is where Conroy’s background in environmental and ecological science comes into play.
“I’ll be working there in the sustainability office, and I’ll be the volunteer coordinator,” Conroy said. “I’ll most likely be doing initiatives for sanitation and for switching from cooking over open fires to some other option, and then doing sustainable agriculture.”
She’ll also be responsible for giving visitors tours of the facility and ensuring they have something to work on during their stay.
Conroy said she is also interested in eliminating the overriding perception most people have about the continent of Africa.
“When I tell people I’m going to Kenya, they immediately think: Africa, lions, starving children,” Conroy said. “If I said I was going to France, people would say ‘Oh, you’re going to Europe.’”
Conroy said people often believe Nyumbani Village is poverty-ridden because it exists without running water, but this is not the case.
“The area where I’ll be is not necessarily impoverished, it’s just a different lifestyle,” she said. “And, yes, according to our U.S. standards, they would be below the poverty line, but they have a different and more traditional lifestyle. It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re impoverished.”
In addition to the goals she has in mind, Conroy said she’s excited to go to Kenya because she has loved to travel ever since her parents began to emphasize traveling at a young age. She and her family would often visit her grandparents, who live in Ireland.
Conroy said she can count on tremendous support from her family when it comes to travel. Her sister Kaela, who graduated from Elon in 2010, also chose to go abroad following graduation to teach English in Spain.
According to Kaela, traveling so much while growing up really opened her and her sister’s eyes to new people and things that can only be learned from experiencing new places.
“I’m excited for [Kristen] and I know she’ll do well in whatever she does,” Kaela said. “She’s worked really hard.”
And for Kristen, combining travel with the opportunity to work on sustainability projects is an ideal opportunity.
“I love the education side of things,” Conroy said. “Environmental education is the type of thing I’m interested in. I’m torn between that and urban and regional planning.”
Education is more fun for her, she said, but she is uncertain how much influence she can truly have from the educational standpoint.
“My goal is to make people understand that there are environmental problems and we need to change our behaviors to correct them, but I don’t know how I want to go about doing it,” she said.
Princeton in Africa is a way to figure it out.
“The thing about the Princeton in Africa program is that I’ll be getting a lot of experience and freedom that I wouldn’t be getting in an entry-level position here,” she said. “There’s a lot of freedom to do what you want, and I can’t wait to experience it all.”