Prescott College is a liberal arts college in northern Arizona that demonstrates its commitment to social justice through a masters program in Social Justice and Community Organizing, a PhD program in Sustainability Education, the Tucson Changemaker Campus and XITO Institute, and Fanon Community Strategy Center. Prescott College has been MERC’s primary partner since 2004 years in the development of our approach to Collaborative Research and University Student Programs.
You Can Join Prescott College’s Semester in Maasailand!
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Prescott College students have contributed to research projects designed by Maasai community leadership. In 2005, students and faculty undertook an investigation of the impacts of tourism on environmental conservation and Maasai communities living adjacent to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve (MMGR). See “Crisis and Opportunity in Maasailand” “A Scandal in Maasailand.”
Prescott College students working with Maasai and Kenyan Wildlife Services anti-poaching patrol, 2005.
In 2006, the class reconstructed the history of the transfer of the Amboseli National Park from the control of the Kajaido County Council to the National Government. “Land Justice in Amboseli.”
In 2007, a student’s senior project undertook an investigation into a program that purported to rescue Maasai girls from their communities which was funded by an international NGO. “Investigation into Tasaru Ntomonok Rescue Center.“
Kaitlin Noss presents research results on Amboseli National Park Management to Kenyan media, 2006.
Between 2008 and 2013, Prescott College classes researched the history of the loss of Mau Narok under colonial and independence eras, work that has been instrumental in the community’s fight for recovery of that land. In 2014, the class lived in a Maasai community and produced a report about the need for water to inform the MERC/Rotary Eorr Emayian Water Project that commenced the same year.
Chrissy Becker and Adair Brown researching the history of land loss at Mau Narok, 2010.
Classes have also conducted promising research on the loss of Magadi, a soda mine located in Maasailand and alienated during the colonial era, Kinangop, a sacred community water shed, and other land rights claims. They have compiled children’s books and assembled and illustrated a Maasai dictionary, written articles for publication in the Kenyan press and undertaken a fundraising campaign to transport observers to polling stations to support fair elections in Maasailand. Classes have have also supported collaborative research, such as a conservation study: Alice McKusick’s “The Impact of Conservancies on Maasai Communities.”
To the Right is the Village of Nkongu’ Narok, home of MERC activists and hosts of Prescott College for many years.
Prescott College class home stay in Nkongu' Narok, Amboseli, 2011.
Recently, Prescott College students have welcomed students from Arizona State University and explored synergy between liberal arts and engineering in Maasailand, while also sharing the classroom with Maasai field guides in training. We learn many things from each other in and out of the classroom, about wildlife, life ways, and culture.
Parsaloi Dapash, Naini Caras and Kaitlin Noss, Mara Guides Association Graduation, 2018.