A Note to Readers

Hello there! 

I'd like to start out by expressing my thanks to you for visiting my page. My name is Hanna Tenerowicz, and this blog will document my  process as I plan and pioneer the Teach-for-Muanjadi program, which will allow one French-speaking student from the Douglas County School District to spend a month of their summer teaching English to the girls of the Muanjadi High School in Mbuji Mayi, Democratic Republic of Congo. I've been offered the opportunity to design this program by Sandra Bea, the founder of the Muanjadi Organization (and a muanjadi - or brave woman - herself). I intend for a majority of my future documentation efforts to be through video, as I plan to compile my experience in creating and executing this project into a documentary following the conclusion of my own pedagogic trip to the Muanjadi High School. All of these videos will be included in my posts on this blog. 

To tell you a little bit about myself, I am a member of the Wellesley College class of 2016. In 2012, I graduated from Castle View High School in Castle Rock, Colorado, where I was quite involved in the French department. I was the president of the Castle View French Honor Society during the 2011-2012 school year, during which we collaborated with the Muanjadi Organization to provide scholarships for eleven girls, allowing them to continue their educations at the Muanjadi High School rather than face arranged marriages. After reading Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn's book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (a great read, by the way - I highly recommend it), I was inspired to put as much of my time and energy as I could into helping the world to foster greater gender equality. I contacted Sandra, inquiring about the possibility of going abroad to teach English at the Muanjadi High School during the summer of 2013, and that's when she offered me the opportunity to start such a program myself. 

Since then, I've been pretty busy: I've joined a dance group, started rowing for Wellesley, experienced my first New England autumn, befriended some of my truly-inspiring peers, and finished my very first semester of college. Yet through all of this, the prospect of teaching for the Muanjadi Organization has remained assiduously in my mind, and I hope very much to see this project come to fruition and influence many lives for the better. 

Until next time, 

Hanna