Academic News

Having completed their exams, the students left the SFS Kilimanjaro Bush Camp (KBC) and continued on to our Nairobi National Park Site (NPS). Approaching NPS, students traveled along the boundary of Nairobi National Park, where they saw herds of wildebeest, zebra, gazelles, and giraffes grazing or moving between Nairobi National Park and the Kitengela dispersal area. While at NPS, students will examine the impacts that changing land uses in the Kitengela dispersal area will have on the city of Nairobi. They will also look at speculative real estate and the effects of expanding industries in an insularizing Nairobi National Park. Through traveling lectures, lectures by Nairobi National Park wardens and other guests, students are beginning to understand the magnitude of threats to the future of Nairobi National Park.

During our stay at the SFS NPS field station, we will examine various solutions to the environmental problems facing the park. For example, students will learn about controlled burning as an ecological approach to diversify and enrich habitats of the park. Next students will leave for Lake Nakuru National Park for a six day trip where issues facing a completely fenced insular ecosystem will be discussed.
Dr. Moses M. Okello, Acting Director

Student Reflections

Change has been a constant companion that I have learned to embrace and anticipate in my time here. In just this week alone I have sat for exams on a different continent, participated in a once-a-decade celebration ritual of Maasai boys' progression into moranhood, left the camp with the view of Kilimanjaro for another located within an hour to the city of Nairobi, changed roommates, traded dust for grass, and visited Nairobi National Park (our third National Park!) where we were greeted with sightings of our fourth of the big five – the rhinoceros. In the space of a week, we entered into a new beginning – and it is this glorious change that this program brings that I expect will continue to open up and transform my world in ways that one can hardly imagine. Grace Tan, Vassar College

Students at Giraffe Center

This past week we were able to go to Nairobi and visit the Giraffe Center, which is trying to protect and save the highly-endangered Rothschild giraffe in Kenya. They also have an outreach program for kids from Nairobi who possibly have never before seen a giraffe. When we walked in amongst the school kids, we were handed some giraffe treats and we were able to walk up to the giraffes to feed and pet them. We could even put the food up to our lips and have the giraffes kiss us as they took it. A giraffe tongue feels like sandpaper and they really like to slobber! There was one giraffe that was rather aggressive and if you didn't have food on you, she would head-butt you pretty hard, even at times in the back! After we fed the giraffes, staff from the Giraffe Center talked to us about their program and how they help the children. All around the inside of the center were pictures of animals that kids had drawn – including a diorama.  Overall, it was a really amazing day, and we were able to interact with the tallest animal on earth.
Clara Cooper-Mullin, Kenyon College

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