KCAU-UMICH Virtual Exchange Grants/Scholarship for Swahili Students in the School of Education, Arts and Social Sciences

The KCAU School of Education Arts and Social Sciences invites applications for interested participants in KCAU and University of Michigan Virtual Exchange Grants/Scholarship for Swahili Students in the School of Education The KCA University Virtual Exchange Initiative along with the school of education (Swahili Language students) developed a Virtual Exchange with the University of Michigan Swahili language program. Virtual exchange is a pedagogy that connects international peers for meaningful and sustained interaction – discussion and collaborative project work – in the context of their regular coursework.  This virtual exchange will transport our student teachers from their classroom to a “real”, albeit virtual, world of Swahili language and culture and, more importantly, it will allow KCAU students to make connections and begin to form relationships with university peers at UMICH. We expect that this virtual exchange will provide KCAU Swahili students with a very meaningful and relevant context in which to practice their Swahili language pedagogical and teaching skills and apply their cultural knowledge to the conversational setting. KCAU students also gains the opportunity to apply and refine what they have been learning in teacher preparation courses to the “real-world” context of learners of Swahili with the added value of gaining first-hand immersion experience with the global education pedagogy of virtual exchange and with teaching language in an online environment. 

Goals

The goals of the virtual exchange between KCAU and U-M are outlined in the table below:  

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN	KCAU
Language Learning Goals   Enhance the Swahili language learning experience for U-M students in Intermediate and Advanced Swahili.  Improve Swahili language skills (particularly in speaking and listening)  Meet weekly or every other week with Kenyan university peers, who are future teachers of Swahili  Receive just-in-time instruction and feedback during meetings to address specific challenges  Develop fluency in Swahili, given the extended time dedicated for each student to be in conversation (20 minutes) Gain exposure to Swahili speakers other than their teachers, which will greatly improve U-M student’s listening skills	Language Teaching Goals   Hone teaching skills through micro-teaching moments with U-M language learners Learn about virtual exchange pedagogy through immersion and seminal articles on virtual exchange pedagogy so they can connect practice to theory and research Gain practice and experience in the general area of teaching languages online
Cultural Exchange   Students will engage in conversations about cultural topics, learning about the authentic, lived experiences of their peers in Kenya.  Michigan students will share their own experiences and perspectives. Students will engage in reflection activities to examine what and how they are learning about culture.	Cultural Exchange   Students will engage in conversations about cultural topics, learning about the authentic, lived experiences of their peers in the US.  KCAU students will share their own experiences and perspectives. Students will engage in reflection activities to examine what and how they are learning about culture.

For this program to be successful, the University of Michigan has awarded grants worth $3000 for the following purposes.

• Modest training scholarships for KCAU student-mentors for their participation in these, for them, extra training sessions, and
• Wireless data payment cards for the KCAU student-mentors to enable them to conduct video meetings with U-M students without rapidly depleting their monthly data plan, potentially on a single meeting with their U-M partner! 
• Stipends for supervisor and student coordinator at KCAU, student scholarships for mentor training program and data cards for student mentors.

Following the award of the above grants, the School of Education wishes to invite Kiswahili student- teachers to apply for this limited and competitive scholarship program whereby part of your tuition fee worth $171 will be covered with a 4-month wireless data payment worth $30 for three months. The student can apply for both Mentorship and coordinator position.

Requirements for Application

• You must be a KCAU student
• You must be a student-teacher in the school of education pursuing Kiswahili as a teaching subject.
• Must be a 3^rd Year or 4^th Year Student.
• Students in 3^rd and  4^th Year who taking media Studies and are fluent in Kiswahili can also apply.
• You must be a registered member of Chama cha Kiswahili cha KCAU (CHAKIKCA)
• You must have not participated in the previous exchange, but students who participated in the previous exchange are encouraged to apply for the coordinator role

N/B

The students who participated in the previous exchange program are encouraged to apply for the coordinator role. Please Click on this link to apply. Please apply by latest Friday 12^th January 2024. https://forms.gle/PGiJ8PFEavctAa8Q8 .

If you have any questions, please contact mwangij@kcau.ac.ke or njoki@kcau.ac.ke