Olivet Alumni Trip To Maasailand, Kenya

Explore Kenya with Alumni Access: Spring 2025 Adventure

Join us for a unique travel experience with access to exclusive learning opportunities as we journey into the heart of Maasailand. As an alum, you’ll have the option to access all of the advanced readings that our participants will use to prepare for this adventure, enhancing your understanding of the Maasai culture, history, and ecology. You’re also invited to join virtual class discussions and Zoom meetings with our Maasai colleagues—key guides and educators for this immersive journey. Participation is entirely optional, and there are no academic requirements.

Itinerary: Kenya 2025

Embark on a transformative journey that will take you deep into the rich history and stunning wildlife of Maasailand. This immersive experience will introduce you to the fascinating world of the Maasai people, their sustainable ways of living, and the unique grassland ecosystems they share with wildlife. You’ll gain insights into how Maasai culture blends traditional knowledge with innovative solutions to preserve their land and way of life for future generations.

This extraordinary trip will be hosted at the Dopoi Center, where you’ll engage directly with Maasai teachers to learn about their language, culture, consensus-based justice system, and the challenges they face today. Witness firsthand their efforts to resolve human-wildlife conflict and explore tourism reform and economic empowerment initiatives—all while surrounded by the breathtaking landscapes of Kenya.

This is more than a trip—it’s an opportunity to engage with the Maasai people and their land on a deeper level. Ready for an adventure? Let’s go!

Logistics

For a fee of $3500 plus airfare, you’ll receive an all-inclusive package that covers transportation, housing, food expenses, and wildlife safaris. Alumni will be housed in cottages designed for faculty and researchers, which include comfortable beds with mosquito nets, private porches, private bathrooms and showers.  All of the alumni accommodations sleep 2 people to a room (with a choice of two single beds or one king-sized).

We depart from Olivet, Michigan on May1, 2025 and return on May15,^, 2025

ILT Spring 2025 / SA250 On The Borders: Kenya

This trip will orient you to Maasailand, the history and ecology of the region, Maasai culture and society, present-day challenges to the community’s sustainable use of land, and solutions the community is exploring to enable its survival into the future on its own terms. You will learn about the wildlife of Maasailand and the grassland ecosystems they share with the Maasai people. Through intensive immersion, alumni & students will learn from Maasai teachers about the Maasai language and culture: the consensus-based justice system, communal family and political structures, and shared economy. They will learn about how Maasai face challenges to their land and way of life through human-wildlife conflict resolution, such as local economic rights, empowerment, and tourism reform. Educational opportunities will be taught at the Dopoi Center in Maasai Mara, beginning on May 1^st and ending on May 15^th.

For more information about this exciting opportunity, contact Dr. Zoe Hammer at zhammertomizuka@uolivet.edu

Information about the Dopoi Center

The Dopoi Center is created and run by MERC, the Institution for Maasai Education, Research and Conservation, a grassroots Maasai collective founded decades ago by Meitamei Olol Dapash. Dopoi is a space of collaboration between MERC and participating colleges and universities to promote economic empowerment and environmental justice in Maasailand.

Ethical Educational Travel Experience

Maasai people seek to restore their role as stewards of Maasai lands through ethical tourism and educational field studies. At Dopoi, we welcome all partners committed to creating sustainable, accountable tourism, education, and research in collaboration with Maasai communities.

Cultural Immersion

Our planet’s future depends on the ability of human societies to reinvigorate cultural accountability to the land, and that is what we learn through immersion in Maasai culture. At Dopoi, learners share the classroom with Maasai teachers and students in a setting that respects the equal value of Western science and Indigenous knowledge.  Classes support Maasai community initiatives, including land rights and economic and political empowerment, through research and the education and certification of Maasai people.

Meitamei Olol Dapash, Dopoi Center Founder and Executive Director