This summer, the Foothill-De Anza Education Foundation will give fifteen students a life-changing opportunity to travel to Kenya for an archeological field-work expedition.

Annie Do, 20, cultural anthropology major has never been out of the country, and was shocked when she found out she could go. “How did I get to this point in life, where I’m actually able to take on something so important and intense and life-changing?” she said.

Moses Ramirez, 19, anthropology major, said his low socio-economic background gave him the inspiration to study anthropology. “I’ve always wanted to get a better understanding of why I had to live through all the struggles that I’ve been through,” Ramirez said.

Leading the Kenya program, Isaiah Nengo, anthropology professor, said he is encouraged to continue the program because of the “lack of opportunity to community college students, especially minorities, [to study abroad].”

Determined to broaden the minds of students for science, specifically for anthropology, Nengo reached out to his previous contacts from Turkana Basin Institute to initiate the program in 2014.

Students on the trip are required to write four blog posts reflecting on their experiences. During the orientation, Lindsay West, a representative of the FHDA Education Foundation, emphasized the importance of the blog posts as a way to reassure private donors that their donations have gone into something meaningful. “We want to share with them the wonderful things that are happening,” West said. “It says something more and it says something deeper.”

The Foothill-De Anza Education Foundation offers its students a broad range of opportunities to further their education, taking into consideration the economic disadvantage that many community college students have to deal with. These opportunities may range from free school supplies to state certification programs.

A large part of these opportunities are constituted of scholarships funded by private donors, including those given to students taking the Kenya trip this year.