Oct. 3, 2024
To an outside eye, the classroom packed with faculty members and community leaders would have looked like a run-of-the-mill training or seminar.
But for Wilson Majee, an associate professor of health sciences and public health with the MU College of Health Sciences, that lively discussion represented a full-circle experience.
Majee, who grew up in rural Zimbabwe and worked as a community development specialist with University of Missouri Extension before he became faculty, said it was incredible to see those two areas of his life collide in a meaningful way.
“I came to where I am because of MU Extension,” Majee said. “Bringing Extension faculty to Africa with me was a powerful and transformative experience. Transformative in the ways the program participants engaged with the program and in the knowledge and experience exchanges that happened between the Mizzou team and local residents.”
Following his Fulbright experiences in South Africa in 2023, Majee worked with MU Extension and University of Missouri–St. Louis Neighborhood Leadership Academy (NLA) organizers Claire Rippel and Sarah Hultine Massengale to bring a contextualized version of the program to Port Alfred in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Participants included 16 grassroots leaders from the region and four Stenden South Africa faculty members.
Since launching in 2002, the NLA has brought together community leaders who are interested in driving positive change in their communities. Typical participants range from business owners and block captains to neighborhood association presidents and community activists.
Through a series of training sessions, the academy provides participants with personal leadership skills, project planning and implementation tools, organizational leadership and management practices, and community-building strategies.
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