Welcome to Our World

Welcome everyone to TOLEDO EXCEL Live Out of Africa!!!! My name is David Young and I am the Director of the TOLEDO EXCEL Program at the University of Toledo. I first want to give a HUGE thank you to Sheila Doles for suggesting this blog and doing the initial set-up. I also want to thank Merida Allen Associate Director of TOLEDO EXCEL for coordinating the trip. This site will give a daily account of some of the highlights of the TOLEDO EXCEL Global Diversity Peace Project done this year in South Africa. We are taking 15 students along with 7 UT faculty/staff members, 1 student's Grandmother, and a photojournalist, to do a 16 day ethnographic field study of Johannnesburg, Soweto, Sharpville, Durban and Cape Town South Africa. The study will foccus on the differences/similarities between the Civil Rights Movement of the United States and the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa. Some of the highlights of our study will include: Visit to African National Congress (ANC) Offices w/lecture from past and present ANC officials, visit and interaction with students from Orlando West High School in Soweto (landmark school during apartheid struggle), visit former home of Nelson Mandela, tour Anti-Apartheid Museum, historical tour of Soweto, tour and lecture at University of Kwa Zulu Natal in Durban, tour of Robben Island (w/lecture by former Robben Island prisoners), tour of Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg, interaction and lecture at Amy Biehl Foundation in Capetown, study of urban cities and rural townships in each province, and the participants will also take part in a game drive near Durban.

I will coordinate this page, but posts will come from Ms. Merida Allen, TOLEDO EXCEL students, other UT faculty/staff traveling with us, and possibly a few special friends in South Africa. We depart the U.S. on July 22nd from Detroit and fly into London for a layover before we arrive at our final destination in Jo-burg. We are tying up loose ends for the rest of this week and will be sure to post anything interesting as we prepare for our trip. Talk to you soon!!!!