Dau and Zack in Africa

 

While much of Penn heads to New York for summer internships on Wall Street, a couple Quakers are taking a decidedly different route. Dau Jok, Zack Rosen and a group of about a dozen Penn students and faculty are now in Rwanda, on an "interfaith and inter-ethnic service learning that will bring together Penn students to explore the dynamics of cultural and ethnic violence and strategies for their elimination."

Those are the words of Dau, who along with Zack will be blogging their experience for ESPN.

"We will spend most our time here at the Agahozo Shalom Youth Village and the surrounding community of Rubona. It is our duty to connect, teach, and learn from the people here," Dau writes in the first installment.
The 12-day trip is led by Penn Hillel director Mike Uram, and it looks like an amazing experience for all involved. Dau and Zack were able to set up the blog with help from assistant coach Dan Leibovitz and Dana O'Neil of ESPN. Not coincidentally, O'Neil profiled Jok and and the trip for ESPN.com today.

While most of the students are there for 12 days, Dau will break off from the group on May 29 and head to his native Sudan where he will begin building the Dut Jok Foundation, an after school sports program in honor of his father (pictured above, with young Dau in red), which is funded by the Kathryn Wasserman Davis 100 Projects for Peace award. Dau won the grant this spring.

"I'm more excited than I am worried," Jok told ESPN. "It's like a dream come true. There's so much I want to get done"

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