This past summer Dr. Sue Dickson, associate professor of religion, made a trip to Kenya. Dickson traveled for the first graduation ceremony of Ezra Christian College. Dickson played a major role in the founding of the seminary and was invited to be the guest speaker at the graduation in addition to teaching a two-week intensive course on the book of Revelation.

Dickson’s journey in East Africa started four years ago when she met with 50 pastors from the area who traveled to gather in a bucolic church setting to discuss a common passion and participate in a seminar she taught on the New Testament. According to Dickson, hardly any of the students had an education past the eighth grade, but that did not stop their yearn to learn more of providence.

“They loved the Lord. They were called to preach. But, they needed—they desperately wanted—training,” Dickson said in an AU press release.

The students were so excited to learn and keep learning that they came up after the seminar and asked Dickson, “How can we keep going? How can we keep studying?” To which she responded with “You just do it.”

Within four years the group of rural pastors organized and became the driving force of the school. They found teachers that would volunteer, a space in a local high school, as well as a board for the institution which mainly consisted of the original rural pastors. This rag tag group went from passionate pastors who most of which didn’t have a high school diploma, to eager founders of a Kenyon government recognized institution.

The college was founded in 2015 during Dickson’s senior study leave. There are now campuses in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Sudan.

“This college is a dream come true,” Dickson said.

Dickson says the most surreal moment for her was the ceremony. The familiar tradition with an African flair was an “amazingly beautiful” experience complete with robes, the calling of names, African dancing and music, all done in Swahili.

Dickson described the trip as “thrilling” because she was able to see something so often portrayed as impossible become a reality.

Her experience also helped enhance her teaching by realizing how privileged her students at Ashland are compared to those in rural countries. To be here and have the resources that AU provides are often taken for granted and Dickson would like to instill how fortunate her students should be in the classroom and for the gift of education.

One theme Dickson would like her students to gain from her sharing her experience in Kenya is how important it is to experience other cultures.

Whether it be through study abroad, mission trips or just traveling with friends and family, traveling to another country and indulging in an unfamiliar way of living is vital to growing and expanding as an individual.

“An important aspect of liberal education is to travel outside your comfort zone and so I would encourage all of our students to take advantage of the study abroad programs available here because experiencing the world is in itself part of liberal education. It makes you a better global citizen,” Dickson said.