C-U students living the 'DREAAM' with trip to Africa

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CHAMPAIGN — On a trip that will, for some of them, be their first time leaving the country, five teen members of DREAAM are preparing to visit Malawi.

While DREAAM — that’s Driven to Reach Excellence & Academic Achievement for Males — has hosted a few trips within the U.S., this will be their first overseas venture.

“It’s important for us to really feel their cultural empowerment,” said DREAAM founder Tracy Dace. “By providing this opportunity for them to visit Africa and see the beauty of Malawi, meet the people, meet kids like them, that also kind of expands their cultural awareness and their global connections as well.”

Dace said that DREAAM’s mission is to foster “excellence and holistic development among young males,” so a trip like this one that allows for both cultural exchange and community engagement is ideal for the organization.

The boys will have a packed schedule for the nine days they’ll be in Malawi as they learn more about the country, meet kids their age and run science and sports workshops.

“The main thing I’m looking forward to is the food and meeting people there and just seeing how their day-to-day goes and how they act,” said Charles Griffin, a Central High student.

“I feel like we have a lot of stereotypes and stuff like that with Africa in general and I want to be able to prove them wrong, ‘cause I know that’s not how all of Africa is.”

Griffin mentioned wanting to find out if people over there had similar or different senses of humor to Americans since the cultures are different.

Mycal Turner, an Urbana High student, said that his previous overseas trip was to Europe, so he’s also interested to visit somewhere with a more noticeably different culture.

“I’m excited to see the differences in the motherland, how people have survived centuries of colonization and still are able to thrive and make their own successfully,” Turner said.

He specifically mentioned wanting to learn more about the school systems and whether they’re different due to Malawi having different kinds of communities more than America has.

The DREAAM group will get to experience some of that variety firsthand.

They’ll spend a few days in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, which is home to over 1.1 million people and is in many ways similar to other large cities the group may have visited.

They’ll also visit places like Kumbali Cultural Village, which is a tourist destination designed to demonstrate typical Malawian village life, and go on safari at Liwonde National Park.

While they’re in Zomba, the group will lead a sports camp for a group of fellow young people with a packed schedule of basketball, American football, soccer and kickball.

They will also lead a STEM camp with science and engineering outreach activities designed by the POETS Center in the University of Illinois Grainger College of Engineering.

These camps fall more in line with what DREAAM does here in Champaign-Urbana.

Marquan Dunn, an Urbana High student, said they also do other volunteer work and just about anything to help the community.

“If you don’t have a program, you don’t have something to do after school, you should join,” Dunn said.

“It helped me a lot just academically, mentors, sports. If you need to talk to anyone, you always have an ear.”

Turner said that he has ended up with opportunities he never would’ve expected within DREAAM when he started out helping at the Saturday school.

“Once you are a part of DREAAM, it’s like you’re part of a network. You’re not limited to just doing one thing,” Turner said.