After visiting Kenya, VP of Student Affairs compelled to help build K-8 school

When she first heard about Abdi Lidonde’s idea to build a school in his native Kenya, Jacqueline D. Peterson, vice president for Student Affairs and dean of students at Holy Cross, said she’d try to help.

But it wasn’t until she traveled to Kenya that Peterson truly understood the importance of the project, a longtime dream of Lidonde, a supervisor in the College’s physical plant.

In 2004, Peterson met with Lidonde and Alice K. Mudiri, then a math and science teacher at the Nativity School in Worcester, to talk about their plans for a school. Mudiri has worked for the World Health Organization, the Africa Community Action Health Network and other international associations, and shared Lidonde’s dream. She will serve as head of the Beverly School of Kenya, named in memory of Lidonde’s mother.

“I told them I’d be happy to help in any way that I can,” Peterson says. “Clearly, I thought it was an admirable vision and goal.”

In the winter of 2006, unrelated to her decision to help Lidonde, Peterson accompanied students on the 12-day Kenya Immersion Trip, sponsored by the Chaplains’ Office. There, she met and spoke with men, women and children, and witnessed the widespread poverty that plagues the region. Hearing the children talk about their intense desire for an education moved her most.

No longer did she simply admire Lidonde’s idea.

“I came away with a totally, totally different perspective about what Abdi wanted to do and why it was so incredibly important to create this school. What I saw helped me clearly understand the importance of his vision. It’s not unlike what the students feel when they come back,” she says, referring to the hundreds of Holy Cross students who have described the College’s immersion trips as life-changing experiences.

As the head of Student Affairs, Peterson provides leadership in the development, implementation, and direction of programs and services to support the education and personal growth of students. And her commitment to Jesuit principles of service extends beyond her professional responsibilities. Yet while she had participated in many worthy causes over the years, and continually keeps in mind her “special responsibility to the world’s poor and powerless,” her trip to Kenya was unlike anything she had previously experienced.

Upon her return to the United States, Peterson couldn’t help but think this was a sign that she must do everything she can to help the project get off the ground. She agreed to serve on the board of directors of the school.

“I thought it was extremely fortuitous that I had this talk with Abdi and just a few months later I had this immersion experience in Kenya. It just called to me: This is what you’re supposed to do!”

She adds: “You realize that you are halfway around the world, and that you are living and eating, and breathing the same air with people who have been so incredibly marginalized, disenfranchised, and — for so long — forgotten. It’s different than watching the midnight shows requesting help. You are right there. You see it.”

On Nov. 14 from noon to 1 p.m. in Hogan Jenks Suite A, Peterson will share her story. Lidonde and Thomas A. Maher ’84, vice president of the board of the Beverly School who is passionately committed to education, will join her, in the luncheon titled “Living the Mission: The Beverly School of Kenya … A Son’s Vision.”

The talk is sponsored by the “Hate: Not Here!” committee and the Office of Human Resources and is a continuation of the “Lessons from the Cross … Stories of Civility” series, designed to provoke discussion and reflection on the College’s mission and social justice.

Maher was compelled to help after reading about the Beverly School of Kenya, named in memory of Lidonde’s mother, in the spring 2006 issue of Holy Cross Magazine.

Work on the multimillion dollar facility, which will be located about 60 miles northwest of the capital city of Nairobi, began this summer and is expected to be complete by July 2008. The school will serve students in kindergarten through grade 8.

As one of her contributions, Peterson is helping raise money for a farm that will be set up to help sustain the community. At the talk, she will unveil those plans and other opportunities to help.

“In order to have the farm operational, there are two things that are critically important: equipment and livestock. I learned from Alice Mudiri just how inexpensive these are,” says Peterson.

While several of her fellow board members who work in the corporate world are hoping to produce major donations, she sees this as her way of helping — and an opportunity to engage the campus community.

Peterson, who also helped to develop the curriculum for the school, plans to make time in her busy schedule to visit Kenya again soon.

“This is just a natural project that lives up to the College’s mission — in more ways than one. We’re reaching out to a community that needs help, we’re offering education to people, as well as the fact that Abdi — a member of the Holy Cross family — took his dream and acted upon it.”

Related Information:

• Beverly School of Kenya • College Mission Statement • Kenya Immersion Program