Welcome Sarah Kemboi!
Sarah Kemboi and Ruth Schukman-Dakotas
Sarah Kemboi recently joined the staff of St. Anne’s school as the new principal. Sarah comes with experience working both at a National girls school and a start-up school. Her experiences from both will assist her in taking St. Anne’s to the next level. This position assignment is perfect as her family is from Kapkemich and this fuels a desire to see the girls here thrive!
After spending this last term understanding how things work, Sarah discovered that one of the differences from the National Schools is that the current curricula at St. Anne’s is very narrow. She is now planning to implement changes including a broader curriculum of courses: Home Science, Computer Science Lab, Art Classes, and Foreign Language, as well as starting a Journalism Club with a school magazine highlighting all of their activities and awards achieved.
Sarah also believes in community service projects and plans are underway to begin a recycling program and expand the agricultural coursework to include a Young Farmers Club, bringing farm-to-table food offerings. Sarah also believes starting a culinary class and bakery will eliminate the need to purchase bread for 300+ girls. These changes will engage the girls in areas that will develop personal responsibility and confidence in addition to motivating them to believe in themselves.
2023 Academic Performance Awards
Ginger, Ruth, and Cathy with students at St. Anne’s.
Members of the FOAS board, Cathy Allin and Ruth Schukman-Dakotas, visited St. Anne’s Girls School in October 2023 along with first-time visitors Ginger Riddle and Leslie Ann Savage Psy.D.
During this visit, an Excellence in Academic Performance award program was inaugurated. The top performing FOSA students in each subject by form level and the top 3 FOSA performers in each form grade level were recognized. Each honoree received a certificate and a small gift. Afterward, the FOSA students joined the rest of the students and faculty to recognize the top and most improved students by form grade level. FOSA scholars represented more than 50% of the school’s top-performing students. Afterward, everyone celebrated with soda, candy, cookies, and meat served for dinner, all provided by FOSA.
Recognizing the students’ success throughout the school year was part of an academic initiative launched earlier this year. Providing awards acknowledging the students’ achievements helps motivate them to work harder on a range of subjects and other areas such as music, sports, and leadership.
Loreen – A FOSA Student Story
On a walk around the village of Kapkemich, we were met by a young girl just standing by the side of the dirt road hoping we would stop to talk with her. She was curious as to who we were, why we were there, and clearly hoping we could help her out of her current situation. Her name is Lorren and this is her story.
Loreen in her small adobe.
“Can you help me?” The words are hard to hear, especially when they come from a child. “Can you take me to the USA?” she asked. As we asked her to tell us more about her life and situation, we told her that to get to America “You must work hard and make good grades, and then maybe…”
We learned she was hoping we would help her as:
- It’s hard to good grades if you go to school during the day and come home to a room without electricity where it gets dark by 6 p.m.
- It’s hard to get good grades when you don’t have a mother to keep house, there is no running water or plumbing, and you’re hungry.
- It’s hard to get good grades when your school fees don’t get paid by your father, who is a day laborer struggling with addiction, and you’re under threat of not being able to return.
- It’s hard to get good grades when the roof leaks on your study materials.
We asked Loreen if she could get us her transcript from her current school, a government primary school for both boys and girls about 5 miles from Kapkemich.
We walked with her to our new FOSA office and introduced her to Emmaculate to discuss her potential enrollment as a boarding school student at St. Anne’s beginning in the new school year in January.
What we learned was this young woman had made good grades in her science classes. She had an A in physics and a B in chemistry! She was ranked second in her class in business studies and religion education and she was ranked in the top 6th of her entire class!
Imagine what this student could accomplish in a boarding situation where she gets three meals a day and has a place to do school work in the evening. We’re going to find out because our FOSA team and St. Anne’s have now worked with her family and the Ministry of Education to get her enrolled as a boarder at St. Anne’s.
