A three week Service Learning trip was organized by ASEC and its partners between May-June 2024, where nine students from couple universities traveled to Kenya. During their trip, the students provided charitable donations and different types of service at six sites- Dorothea Rescue Center, Dorothea Health Center, Our Lady of Assumption Mission School, St. Martin’s School Kibagare, Cottolengo Children Center, Langata Women’s Prison. Among the participants was Madilyn Grose, a sophomore in Art Therapy (Ceramics) at Marywood University, who shared details about her experience on this service trip and how the 21 days in Kenya changed everything for her.
In the fall semester of 2023, Madilyn had written a paper on ‘ASEC and its importance at Marywood University’ and had some knowledge about ASEC and its work. During the semester, she received an email detailing various upcoming events and activities students could sign up for the 2024 Spring semester and the Service Learning Trip to Kenya was listed on it. Excited to participate in the trip, she reached out for more information and quickly applied to the program. She put up a brave front through the entire trip preparation and course work, but deep down had mixed feelings and anxieties about going on this trip. Attending the ASEC night of storytelling, meeting and listening to the experience of the service learning alumna and interacting with ASEC staff and Catholic sisters alleviated all her anxieties and lifted the cloud of worries.
Once in Kenya, Madilyn felt the warmth and happiness of everyone around her. As she spent time connecting with the girls, children and local communities, she was slowly able to use her interests, skills and talents to provide service at the sites.
Art therapy requires a lot of materials which were unavailable at the time, but she was able to work around this deficiency by engaging the kids at the Dorothea rescue center in crafts and therapy involving relaxation and sharing feelings about things. Madilyn along with a few others performed crafts projects with the children at the Our Lady of Assumption Mission School collected little pebbles, put glue on a piece of paper in a specific design, poured the pebbles on it, and then shook the rest of them off. It was a simple project but the kids were very happy with the results. Being a ceramics student, she was also able to conduct an arts lecture with the children on how to build ceramic items using clay, pottery wheel and other items. In speaking about this experience, she said, “I was definitely able to connect a lot of what I want to do with my life to this trip”.
Madilyn described the trip as “amazing with a perfect balance of service, tourist activities and a perfect amount of downtime to relax and/or reflect”. She was able to teach the children in Kenya that disability is not inability and that it is okay that sometimes people’s bodies work differently. Service in this case can be described as two sides of the same coin where Madilyn was able to leave a lasting impression on the people she served but simultaneously was intensely impacted by the people and their heartbreaking trauma experiences.
When asked about any advice she had for future applicants or participants, she stated that if you are lucky enough to get an opportunity to serve and gain new experiences in another country, you need to do it. She further said, “keep a little note on your phone and just write down all of your amazing moments, because at some point all you're going to be able to do is remember them. And you definitely don't want to forget anything. It's just so amazing”.
Madilyn expressed her deepest gratitude for the people of the Dorothea Rescue Center who went above and beyond to make her stay as comfortable as possible. She arrived in a completely wheelchair accessible room and they were quick to make adjustments to allow her to move freely. Madilyn described an anecdotal instance of when she experienced extreme kindness from the Kenyan people- Madilyn’s wheelchair wheels would get stuck in the loose gravel at the area where they would have their meals. This made it a little hard for her to move on. Next day when she went out to eat breakfast, the loose gravel was now covered with slabs of concrete as they did not want her struggling for meal time. This was one of her most beautiful experiences.
Being deeply moved by the love, respect, and kindness she experienced, Madilyn said, “I feel like when I had got there no one looked at me as like, oh, the girl with disabilities! I was just one of them. I was just like a person, and I wasn't treated any differently”. As a final note, Madilyn expressed her gratitude to Marywood University and ASEC for providing her the opportunity to be a participant and “to have made an impact in Kenya, and equally grateful for the impact made on her”.
