SHA Service Learning
SHA Service Learning program combines cross-cultural immersion and responsible community service with off-the-beaten-path adventure. Through experiential learning, students gain firsthand insights into the complexities of global tourism, including its environmental and social repercussions. Additionally, the program helps participants develop a deeper cultural appreciation, enhance their problem-solving skills, and contribute meaningfully to community-led initiatives that prioritize local well-being and ecological balance. This transformative experience fosters a more ethical and responsible approach to travel and tourism.
Embark on an exciting journey with BU School of Hospitality Administration and Sargent College of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences on this years’ service-learning trip to Kenya!
Program Dates: May 20 – June 4, 2025
The Hospitality and Healthcare Accessibility in Kenya program invites undergraduate and graduate students to explore the intersection of healthcare and hospitality.
This curated journey will provide students with hands-on opportunities to address real-world challenges in healthcare accessibility and hospitality service delivery, working alongside local communities and organizations to create meaningful change. Through immersive activities, students will gain a deeper understanding of how hospitality and healthcare can intersect to enhance quality of life and foster sustainable development.
For questions, please contact Olivia Lizza, Alumni & Events Specialist, lizzaol@bu.edu.
More than just a trip, this is a unique chance to expand your worldview, build global connections, and contribute to projects that make a lasting impact. Return with new skills, profound insights, and a renewed commitment to creating solutions where human care and innovation matter most.
Learning Outcomes
- Enhance the ability to engage respectfully and effectively with individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
- Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills through hands-on activities.
- Understand the role of hospitality in healthcare sectors.
- Build resilience and adaptability by navigating and overcoming real-world challenges in diverse settings.
- Apply theoretical knowledge from classroom settings to practical experiences in healthcare and hospitality environments.
- Network with local professionals and gain insights into the global healthcare and hospitality sectors.
Itinerary Highlights
Swahili Language Lesson
- Kiswahili is the national language of Kenya. In the service of increasing intercultural communication skills, students will receive Swahili language lessons and will put their language skills to practice during engagements with local community members.
Home Visit and Cooking Exchange
- Food and its preparation are an integral part of any culture, and eating together is a greatly valued mark of friendship and partnership. Students will join a local Kenyan family in preparing and cooking a traditional Kenyan meal. Students will also be encouraged to prepare a dish from their home context to add to the Kenyan meal in a valuable cooking exchange.
Limuru Marketplace Challenge
- Located about 20 miles northwest of Nairobi within Limuru town, Lumu Marketplace is a vibrant and colorful spread of informal vendors selling a staggering variety of fresh produce, clothing items, and household goods. The marketplace is always a beehive of activities as bartering takes place all day. A visit to this market provides an opportunity to directly engage with the community and increase intercultural competence. Working in small groups, students will be armed with some key Swahili phrases, tips on ethical bartering, and a list of items to find and purchase within a small budget that will be provided. All market goods purchased will be donated to local community projects.
Peer to Peer Engagement with Kimlea Training School
- Kimlea Girls Technical Training College, located in Tigoni, Limuru, is dedicated to transforming lives through education. Since its inception in 1989, Kimlea has empowered over 20,000 women and girls with practical skills in the hospitality industry.
Maasai Mara National Reserve Game Drive
- Located in the southwestern region of Kenya, the Maasai Mara National Reserve is one of the world’s most famous wildlife conservation areas. The reserve is home to the world-renowned great wildebeest migration and is part of a highly diverse ecosystem and migratory corridor that runs south to the Serengeti in Tanzania. Its natural wonders cover a stretch of over 600 square miles. A visit to this vast reserve givesstudents the chance to witness spectacular and diverse wildlife in their natural habitat, while learning about the reserve’s conservation model and how this compares with other models globally.
Limuru Children’s Center
- The Limuru Children’s Center is in Limuru, on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. It was established as a caregiving organization by volunteers from the local community. The Center has five major components: the main branch which is home for over 40 orphans and provides free preschool education to vulnerable children in the community, a baby home that cares for abandoned children from birth through four years, a satellite preschool, a transition program for teenagers beginning secondary school (Life House), and a feeding program based at both the main and satellite preschools. Students will engage with the children here by donating market goods purchased in Limuru Marketplace Challenge, as well as providing general care by feeding and assessing the babies as directed by their primary caregivers.
*Itinerary is subject to change.
Accommodations
Wildlife Tourism College
The Wildlife Tourism College is an educational facility situated in the heart of the Pardamat Conservation Area in the greater Maasai Mara ecosystem. The college provides critical skills training that is aimed at meeting the increasing demand of the wildlife tourism industry in Kenya. This first-of-its-kind initiative is designed to be a catalyst for the development of a centralized tourism, vocational training, research, and community capacity building hub within the region. The college has a student wing as well as a guest wing with a total capacity of 40 beds in flexible self-contained rooming arrangements of between 2 and 8 students sharing. Additionally, there are state of the art facilities that include learning spaces, an atrium, a library, and a viewing deck.
Brackenhurst, Limuru
Brackenhurst is located approximately 20 miles northwest of Nairobi in a peaceful and quiet area, nestled in the rolling hills of the Limuru region, most famous for vast fields of tea and farmland. The facility can house up to 270 guests and is known for its warm hospitality. Rooms are comfortable and fitted with en-suite bathrooms with hot showers. Brackenhurst is equipped with a nurse, a clinic, and a 24-hour security team.
*Accommodations are subject to change
Past Trips
Highlights from SHA’s “Transforming Tourism” trip to Thailand in May 2024
Program Highlights:
- Embracing the chaos and complexity of Modern Bangkok from the delights of Thai cuisine, beautiful temples, and pagodas to the harsh realities in the urban slum of Khlong Toey.
- Getting up close and personal with the endangered Asian elephant while discussing the ethics of animal tourism at Elephant Nature Park.
- Staying with local families in a hill tribe village to learn about one of Thailand’s most successful volunteer and community-based tourism initiatives.
Thailand: Transforming Tourism (Two-Week Sample Itinerary)
DAY 1-3: ORIENTATION BANGKOK
After being picked up from Survhanabhumi International Airport, we’ll settle into our temporary home downtown in Bangkok’s historic Rattanakosin district. Over the next 3 days, we’ll explore the diversity of Thailand’s big bustling capital and acclimatize to the sights, sounds, smells, flavors, and smiles of the country. Once we get our cultural bearings, we’ll find our way to some of the best food stalls, markets, and temples Bangkok has to offer! We’ll also escape the crowds of the world’s most visited city and join our friends from the Sikha Asia Foundation and Hivesters for a day of exploration in some of Bangkok’s lesser-known neighborhoods. All in all, our menu will be full of contrasts and lots to chew on as we begin to unpack the differences between mass and alternative tourism.
DAY 4-8: COMMUNITY TOURISM CHIANG RAI
Next, the group will take a comfortable overnight bus from Bangkok to the far northern province of Chiang Rai where we will be met by our friends from the Mirror Foundation. Mirror is a Thai NGO that works towards improving livelihoods for underprivileged ethnic minority groups in the country. One of the ways they do this is through an ecotourism project that combines immersive homestays, volunteer opportunities and cultural exchange in villages with which they have strong connections. Hiking through tropical forests and past rice fields, we’ll get to bask in a landscape of endless hills and lush greenery. Along the way, we’ll visit remote villages and see firsthand the Mirror Foundation’s initiatives while hearing the stories behind them from the volunteers and villagers they work with.
DAY 8-9: ANIMAL TOURISM CHIANG RAI
Leaving Mirror, we’ll head into town and take some time to get to know the city of Chiang Rai Famous for its night bazaar and northern-style cuisine. Then we’ll visit the nearby Elephant Sanctuary (Elephant Valley Thailand) where we’ll learn about a conservation initiative trying to put an end to the mistreatment of elephants in the tourism industry. We will, of course, have a chance to meet the resident elephants and hear their individual stories from the dedicated staff. We don’t ride or bathe these gentle giants, it’s all about letting elephants be elephants in a setting as close to their natural environment as possible.
DAY 9-10: CULTURAL TOURISM CHIANG MAI
We’ll take a short bus ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, often referred to as the cultural capital of Thailand due to its well-preserved historical character and a vibrant, modern yet distinctively northern Thai cultural identity. Here we’ll spend time visiting glittering spiritual sites, sitting down and talking with monks to learn about Theravada Buddhism, and of course, trying our hand at the art of Thai cooking!
DAY 10-12: TEMPLE TOURISM SUKHOTHAI
Continuing our exploration of tourism, we’ll make a stop at the World Heritage Site of Sukhothai, renowned for its architecture that has survived since the 12- 14th centuries, a time when this area was a powerful kingdom in the region. So, we’ll rent bikes and get to know a little Thai history! We’ll also take time to discuss issues surrounding tourism at ancient sites like these ones.
DAY 12-14: DISORIENTATION BANGKOK
Coming full circle, we’ll conclude our adventure where it all began, in Bangkok. Here, we’ll reflect on an incredible journey, discuss lessons learned and assess our impact. Then it’s back to the international airport to catch flights home and say our fond farewells.
