Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Fellowship Project, undergraduate student Mariam Diefallah interviewed Lauren Milewski, director of curriculum at Kepler Kigali, a non-profit higher education institution based in Africa, in June 2016. Before Kepler, she taught in New York City for five years, having first connected with the school through Teach for America. Prior to that Milewski spent a year teaching English at the Open University of Hong Kong through a Fulbright grant. She holds a master's degree in education from Hunter College and a bachelor's degree in English and anthropology from the University of Michigan. In this interview Milewski discusses the importance of an international education in building a better future for Rwandan youth.
Can you please tell a little bit about yourself?
My name is Lauren Milewski, and I work for Kepler; I am the director of curriculum here. My background in undergraduate was in English and anthropology, and I was really interested in kind of understanding how colonial mindsets impacted people in different countries. I actually studied mostly the Victorian Era, which is very different from now, but it is kind of interesting to think about where I came from. After school, I taught in Hong Kong for a year. I was teaching English and American culture classes in a college there called the Open University of Hong Kong, which is a blended learning school.
After that, I decided to do Teach for America. I moved to New York and taught for five years at my placement school. I taught history, and I did a lot of work on curriculum development, and thinking about how to best assess and develop curriculum that would really help students to be able to ask critical thinking questions about the world, be interested in history and where they come from and why things are the way they are today, and a lot about geography as well. Then, when I decided to leave my school I met the former chief of academic office at Kepler. We had a really good conversation about Kepler, and I was really excited about the potential of organizing the curriculum a little bit more efficiently, and I ended up working here. I actually live in New York most of the time. I am the only U.S.-based member Kepler has. Everybody else live here, but for personal reasons, I am in the United States, and I come here three or four times a year.
Can you please tell me how you got interested in this field?
Of course. I think what really made me interested in education was just how much I enjoyed school as a kid, and how much others did not always enjoy school. For example, my younger brother had a really difficult time at school. He dreaded going, and I always thought it was such a shame, because I loved and enjoyed school so much. I think schools are not suitable for all children or students if you are working at a university level.
I think the second part of it is when I went to the University of Michigan, where I did my undergrad. I really saw that students who were coming from schools that are not as high-performing as the school I came from in New Jersey had a lot of trouble in college. Not because they were not smart, and not because they were not able to do things or hardworking, but because of the quality of education they got which had an impact and caused a huge gap, which made university even more stressful for them. So I think that really made me interested in joining Teach for America and just continuing to work in the field of education afterwards.
Can you please walk me through a typical day at Kepler for you, as well as for students?
For me it is very tricky because when I am in Rwanda, there is no typical day, as I am always trying to meet with people, figure out things, get projects started, or take some decisions regarding other projects. But for students, their typical days depends on the year they are in, so maybe it will be helpful to give a little bit of background about Kepler’s structure here.
First year students come to class at Kepler all time, all day. So, they start the morning with typing classes often, especially in the summer when they are just learning basic typing skills. Then they move into a series of other classes that they will take throughout their year at Kepler. Those classes are Methods of Thinking for Business, which is a critical thinking and business skills course. Twenty-First Century Communications, which deals with English language, as well as communication with different types of people. Technology Skills, which is exactly what it sounds like. Professional Competency, which is where we really focus on challenging soft skills, like how do you manage your time efficiently, how do you ask for help—all those kinds of skills that if you have them, you do really well when employed, and if you do not, you will probably face big challenges. The students will typically come...they normally have two classes per day, around two hours each; they have lunch; and then there are office hours, in addition to the work that they have to do for classes. Because there is internet on campus, students spend a lot of time on campus.
Once they move on to the end of their first year, and their second year, they start working on online platforms, which is the degree granting school, College for America. It is a competency-based degree, so they can finish it on their own pace. So once we decide they are ready, based on assessments, they get access to the platform. They then work through projects independently, after the daily classes. They also usually spend the weekends working independently because they want to progress quickly, as the quicker they progress, the less of a loan they need to take, which is a big incentive for them. Students in second and third, and maybe fourth years, are often doing work studies, or interning while working on their online degree. They take a series of classes that are a continuation of the classes they took before, but that are more specific and with a more advanced set of skills.
How would you define Kepler’s core values?
That is a good question. We have five values that were decided on by the staff and team earlier this year. The first is innovation, really making sure that we are making things creatively and that we know things can get messy at times, but that it will be worth it because we are trying very hard. The second is cultivate insight, which is basically valuing feedback, particularly person-to-person feedback. Thirdly is the three Ps, which are being prepared, being present, and being positive. The fourth is students first, so basically everything we do is centered around students. If we are making a decision, we think about its impact on students before we think about its impact on us. The last one is balance, so really seeking to have a staff that wants to stay here and feels happy and is able to have a family and kind of fulfills personal needs. For example, a lot of our teachers are trying to get their master's degrees; a lot of them want to move up, which is also very important for us.
More broadly, in relation to our mission, I think everybody here really wants to make sure that students have access to a high quality education, particularly students who may not have the opportunity to find that education in other places. Some of our students may receive scholarships elsewhere, or can pay for the fees, but the majority of students would have faced many difficulties to attain a university education without Kepler.
How exactly do you define a high quality education?
We think about high quality as really focusing on critical thinking and on the ability to learn by yourself. So, in contrast to a more traditional university setting—particularly in Rwanda, there is a lot of focus on memorizing facts—we want to shift that focus and make it more about how to solve problems, to ask questions about the world and around you, and how to learn something by yourself or find a way to learn it that is not necessarily instructor-driven. So students should think of themselves as a group that can bring many skills to the table, and that the teacher is not the center of the classroom, the students are, which goes back to the norm that our students are the center of everything in the program.
Can you tell me more about the advantages the graduates of Kepler have?
Students do not get any grades here; instead we focus on mastering the skills. So if there is a student who maybe has low scores at the beginning of the year, these are not the scores that the student will have at the end of the year. So students do not get the average of all their scores, so if a student used to score at one and at the end of the year gets four, the student’s score will be four. We emphasize progression instead of making students feel like they are the product of all the things they have done on average. I think the impact on graduates is that it promotes the idea of growth—that it is okay if you are not good at something at first; what matters is what you get at the end and how you will get there. The goal is that we want lifelong learners who can continue growing in their careers when they leave, which will make them more valuable as employees, and hopefully as leaders and managers of companies in the country in the future.
From my understanding, you currently focus on business and entrepreneurship. Is there a plan to expand the programs in future?
Right now we offer through degrees through College for America. They grant degrees because we cannot; Kepler is not a credit granting school. The degrees they offer right now are management, communications, and healthcare management. So, it is more of a business focus; we are always open for new degrees, but our set skill right now is in business and communications because it is what we have been doing the longest. Also, there is a very high desire here for that from the government and student population, but we are always looking at other universities that we can possibly partner with. Also, College for America is expanding their degrees program; for example, the management program is very new. We expect it will probably expand over the next few years.
How would you define development?
It is a good question. I struggle with this because when we think development, we are thinking of other places coming in and developing the country, and this is unfortunate. Of course we need foreign investors to come here to make things possible, but ideally, I think about development as developing the Rwandans’ talents and helping Rwandans to actually use the resources they have, and to get the resources they need. So building capacity in the country as well as developing from the outside.
You mentioned earlier your interest in how colonialism affected people’s mindsets. Do you think the history of colonialism here is affecting how people see development?
I think from what I have seen is that there is a real focus on entrepreneurship right now in the government. It is something that is also very interesting for our students. There is the idea of making jobs. The government, I think, is encouraging people to make their own jobs, and that they should not wait for others to come to Rwanda and give them jobs. But I still think the government is focusing on bringing outside money. It is just a reality of the situation right now.
This is, I think, where the tension comes up for me. Most employers that we have been able to work with have been foreign, and that is mostly because in Rwanda, there is a culture of not hiring students who do not have a bachelor’s degree yet, so the people whom we have been able to convince that our graduates are different and worthy of a chance are foreign companies that are willing to push aside the degree. It is a real focus for us right now, because we recognize that we do not want to be putting our students in a position where they do not know how to work in a Rwandan culture. We still need to work on our relationships and networks with Rwandan employees.
This is definitely a challenge. Are there any other challenges Kepler faces?
I think another challenge for us has been the language barrier, especially with the switch in 2008 when they shifted from Francophone education to studying in English. Also, many students’ Kinyarwanda skills are not necessarily as good as we want them to be either. So we end up having students that have three languages that they can speak, kind of, but it is hard for them to speak or write in any of those languages, and it is hard for them to speak in English when they get here. Which makes it really difficult for them to access the online material, as it is all in English. But this is why we have the foundation year; they have to take English classes—it is unnegotiable.
The other challenge is just technology here and access to the internet. It is a financial and a logistical challenge for the school, and we really rely on it, but the internet is really expensive. It is a lot better than what it was three years ago, but it is very expensive, which increases how much the students need to pay for the degrees as well. It is also a logistical challenge for instructors because you always have to make sure that if the internet does not work for one of your activities, you will have to have another plan.
How do you think Kepler is promoting for social justice?
Our classes are skill-based, but the content of our classes is often social justice. It is not as explicit as we would like it to be, but it is a conversation that we have been having more frequently. Students read a lot about refugee issues in different classes, particularly because we have another campus at a refugee camp in Rwanda. I think students find social justice content very engaging, and it is also morally important to include it in our classes. I would say it is a growth area for it.
Can you tell me more about the other campus? What are the major differences between the two campuses, especially when it comes to challenges?
There are definitely a lot a of differences. I would say technicality is a problem in both campuses, but it is more of a challenge there, as well as electricity. There are also safety concerns: students cannot take the laptops with them home at night because it is not safe for them to do so. So we have security on campus that patrol the area at night while students are working on their projects. Other challenges include the fact that many of the students work full time, which can conflict with their schedule and limit their time to be able to study. The students there have much lower English language skills. We have some students who came from the campus to this one in Kigali and are of the highest scoring students, but they are still struggling a lot.
Do refugees have to pay through the same methods as students here in Kigali campus?
I believe refugee students are fully funded on scholarships. We do not think it is reasonable to have them have loans at all. We also encourage them to work to be able to have their own money. Students in Kigali take loans to pay for their laptops, housing, and stipends, and of course tuition. The interest rates are fairly low, and we have a support system for students who cannot pay the loans back. Work study also helps students, as the amount they gain is automatically deducted from their loans.
Can you tell me more about the demographics at the refugees’ campus?
All of the students there are Congolese who speak Kinyarwanda. They are mostly Rwandan culturally, but also Congolese culturally, and they actually mostly identify with being from their localities, which is a really interesting identity. Students here are mostly Rwandans, but we have some Congolese students and a decent number of Burundians, some of them are refugees, urban refugees.
Would you say initiatives like Kepler are changing the narratives of how Rwandans view the West?
I think our students are very aware of the history of the genocide. I think it is changing as our students are getting younger, as you can tell their awareness is different. We had a class this year on the genocide history, and the teacher has his master's degree in genocide studies. It is a very popular class here. We even had a video conference with students from Yale who were studying the same thing. I think acknowledging that past is very important because it shows students that even though it is foreigners who are helping to run the school, it is ultimately driven by Rwandese. It is something we are trying to foster more conversations about, and hopefully we will be able to expand that program this year because we want to put that on the table to give students the chance to express any feelings they have about it.
Students here understand that most staff members are based in Rwanda, and that they are really committed to the country and its development. We also had many classes were we talked about the colonial idea of Africa and what that means, and that a lot of the international media is still biased towards Rwanda. I think teaching students to be critical about what they read and what they listen to is very important. So this is how we are trying to adjust it.
What did you mean when you mentioned that younger students have a different level of awareness?
I think some students have a very clear understanding of the history of Rwanda, while others know less about the genocide. That could be because their families moved here after 1994, which is the case with a decent number of the population here, or it could be just that they did not learn as much about it in school. I think it depends on the students’ backgrounds. But many students have been consistently requiring more information about Rwandan history.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
I think we are still trying to understand how to make our students part of Rwanda as a whole. It is something we need to understand better. It is our big next question as we are trying to expand in Rwanda, as well as in eastern Africa in general.
