By Margaret Munyae, Edith Amuhaya, and Hussein Abdi

The General Education Program is truly the corner stone of the USIU-Africa Education. Predicated on the age old liberal arts tradition, it seeks to develop well-rounded individuals with general knowledge of a wide range of subjects and with mastery of a range of transferable skills. Indeed, its main goal is to produce a ‘Global citizen’, with the capacity for lifelong learning who become valuable members of their communities, irrespective of their discipline areas. Through its five signature courses, Languages, Math, IST as well as various school electives, General Education continues to impart critical knowledge and skills that help in grounding all USIU-Africa undergraduate students to ensure that they not only succeed in their studies, but also in their careers upon graduation.

A shining example is Community Service and Learning, a General Education Signature course that the university takes immense pride in. This is because this course introduces the students to community service and volunteerism and their role in development. Through the course, the students are sensitized to various social problems affecting our society, empowering them to engage in responsible and challenging actions for the common good such as coming up with sustainable solutions that help contribute to the realization of the sustainable development goals.

In the 2022/2023 academic year, for instance, 899 students undertook their community service and learning, with 809 students volunteering their services and 90 participating in community development projects, across 70 community service sites. Through the community service projects, the students raised a total of Ksh. 1,789,586, which was used to carry out renovations, buy desks, chairs, textbooks, water tanks, industrial scale sewing machines, washing machines, desktop computers, blood pressure machines, UPS machines, cookers, metallic beds and rehabilitation equipment for children with special needs. USIU-Africa students continue to raise the bar in our community through their selfless acts of service and leadership.