Alumnus says School of St. Jude allows students in Tanzania to dream bigger

Dr. Suleiman Mohammed told Culver Academies students that The School of St. Jude in Tanzania in east Africa provided him with more than a free, high-quality education.

“The school changes something about your mindset. It leads you to dream. It gives you the ability to try and to dare. It gives you an exposure you wouldn’t see anywhere else,” said Mohammed, a doctor in the emergency department at Tanzania’s largest hospital. “The school gives you a leverage to be able to dream bigger, to know that you can do anything you want to do.”

Mohammed, who graduated from St. Jude in 2015, and Gemma Sisia, the school’s founder, spoke Tuesday night at an all-school meeting while visiting campus to learn more about Culver Academies.  Culver’s Leadership Committee for Africa (LCA) has been supporting St. Jude since 2016.

The LCA donated $2,000 to St. Jude during the all-school meeting. The money came from LCA Concessions, which raises money to support scholarships for LCA trips and to keep the costs of trips down. Sisia and Mohammed were hosted by LCA and Culver’s Global Studies Institute, established in 2000 as a non-partisan center for the study of international affairs and a forum for open, serious, and informed discussion of the great challenges facing the world community.

Sisia and Mohammed are on an American tour supported by the American Friends of the School of St. Jude. Sisia said it was her first visit to Culver Academies.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by how wonderful your school is,” she said.

She told the students how she started the school with three students in 2002 and named it St. Jude after the patron saint of hopeless cases. She said she started it as a one-room school with money she raised from her hometown in Australia.

Sisia said she’s been raising funds ever since, expanding to 1,800 students on full scholarships in three schools, including one all-girls school. She said the school receives thousands of applications a year. For a student to be accepted to St. Jude they must pass a poverty test.

“For example, if the family has electricity, they might be considered too wealthy for the program,” Sisia said. “If they have anything more than two rooms, too wealthy for the program. If they have glass in their windows, too wealthy for the program.”

About 230 students in Tanzania, with a population of about 70 million, are accepted each year. When students graduate, they are expected to spend a year doing community service as a way of giving thanks for their free education. They can work at the school or work for a year teaching in Tanzania.

Mohammed, who started his education in public school, enrolled in secondary school at St. Jude in 2009 after receiving an outstanding score on his national exams, shortly after his parents died. He said the new school was a big change in environment and culture.

He said he knew little English and had never had a desk to himself. He was used to overcrowded classrooms. At St. Jude he was paired with an older student who helped him find his way around the school and also helped him manage his time and taught him how to behave.

He said he can still remember the smell of his new “stiff” shirt he got to wear to the new school.

“Whenever I smell the scent of a new cloth I still remember this day,” he said.

He also remembers being overwhelmed by the school’s library.

“I’ve never seen as many books in my life,” he said.

Sisia told the Culver students St. Jude has a leadership system that requires every student to serve on a committee. She said school officials created the system to empower the student government.

“Because the students are with each other every day, and all night and all of the mornings, whereas the staff aren’t. So if we have good, strong student leaders, that actually supplements and supports the staff,” Sisia said.

Mohammed said that leadership training helps the country of Tanzania.

“When they go into the different workplaces they change the attitude whether it is time management, whether it is a worker fix, whether it is honesty, kindness or responsibility in the workplace,” he said. “Maybe people will follow deadlines. Maybe people will not be corrupt. Maybe people will be kind.”

He said the students will “infect the whole country. So maybe 30 years later we will have a better country. Because that’s the whole point.”

Mohammed said he is grateful for all that he’s been given.

“My life has been enriched because very goodwilled people took my hand and gave me encouragement, took me under their wing financially for me to become the person that I am,” Mohammed said. “The help we get from goodwilling people have made a big impact on myself and many other alumni of St. Jude. I’m just one story. There are 100 other stories and more.”

LCA is planning its fourth GPS trip to St. Jude this spring. Culver faculty have also participated in several summer professional development programs since 2017, mentoring teachers and working with students.