Journey Into Africa

Imag­ine grow­ing up in an eco­nom­i­cal­ly chal­lenged neigh­bor­hood where il­lit­er­a­cy, teenage preg­nan­cy, drug abuse, in­car­cer­a­tion and aca­dem­ic un­der­achieve­ment are the norm. Can you pic­ture this en­vi­ron­ment where not on­ly are you not ex­pect­ed to dream your dreams but not even en­cour­aged to live up to your full po­ten­tial. Imag­ine liv­ing in sur­round­ings where your safe­ty is giv­en more thought in the course of the day than your stud­ies. An en­vi­ron­ment where pos­si­ble as­pir­ing fu­ture lawyers, sci­en­tists, doc­tors and states­men are dis­cour­aged, or lured in­to a detri­men­tal street life, which wastes pre­cious po­ten­tial for a sol­id fu­ture. Now, can you vi­su­al­ize a child achiev­ing against these chal­lenges? Con­sid­er a young schol­ar, ful­ly en­gaged in ed­u­ca­tion, ea­ger to ex­pand their world and ex­cit­ed about ex­plor­ing new op­por­tu­ni­ties. KIPP WAYS Acade­my (www.kip­p­ways.org) is an in­no­va­tive na­tion­al char­ter school pro­gram that al­lows these youth to tear down the many ob­sta­cles be­fore them and en­cour­age them on­to a path of suc­cess. KIPP WAYS schol­ars have re­cent­ly re­turned from their trip to Ghana, Africa, which en­abled them to em­brace their African roots. Trav­el­ing abroad is an ed­u­ca­tion un­to it­self and this ex­cur­sion will on­ly fur­ther en­hance their knowl­edge. You can help cap­ture this ex­cur­sion on video. This time­less and cap­ti­vat­ing doc­u­men­tary is now a work-​in-​progress and at its com­ple­tion will al­low you to share in the ex­pe­ri­ence of this amaz­ing jour­ney through the eyes of these young Amer­i­cans. It will chron­i­cle the odyssey of this group of KIPP WAYS Acade­my schol­ars on their so­journ to Africa. They have been study­ing their an­ces­tral his­to­ries and this trip is an en­rich­ing way to ex­plore their her­itage. This ex­pe­ri­ence will be a mon­u­men­tal jour­ney of self-​dis­cov­ery, and serve as a cul­tur­al ex­change on the com­mon­al­i­ties and dif­fer­ences of peo­ple in oth­er lands and how it all re­lates to their world.