Nelson Mandela once said, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered,” and it seems that some unchanging places have altered the hearts and minds of some of UT Martin’s very own students.

The UT Martin College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences embarked on a riveting travel study to Kenya from July 7 to July 26, 2025. This trip was led by Dr. Keith Dooley and included 11 students from across different majors, along with several community members. It was part of a collaboration between Innov8Africa, a non-profit organization dedicated towards helping Kenyan children access education, USDA-NIFA and the Northwest Tennessee Local Foods Network.

Two sophomore Veterinary Science majors, Annmarie Durfee of Oakland and Carrington Pritchett of Clarksrange, shared their experiences on the trip.

Neither student had traveled abroad before the trip, making the trip a much more adventurous experience. Pritchett was inspired to go on the trip due to the connections she made with Kenya during high school.

“In our high school we had this seminar where people came and made bracelets and brought them back. And ever since that I wanted to go,” she said.

“It had to do with animals, so that was definitely the drawing point for it,” Durfee said.

Even though the students were safe for the entirety of their trip, they did face a few setbacks while traveling to the country.

“We were supposed to get there on Tuesday. We didn’t get there till Friday,” Durfee said. “But there were like three different groups eventually in the end for it. And ours was the last one. We started at the Nashville airport, we went to Charlotte, and then to JFK in New York, and then from New York to Doha, [Qatar,] and then finally to Nairobi.”

Even though the trip was planned for educational purposes, the students got to invest in a lot of sight-seeing on game drives while in the country.

“Seeing all the wildlife and stuff up close was really awesome. We saw lions literally right next to the van,” Durfee said.

One of the most memorable locations they visited was Hell’s Gate.

“I don’t really know how to phrase that. But, [to] see everything from the bottom up, and then go to the top and see where the rock is that they hold Simba on. It was just kind of a really cool experience to put a very popular movie to a place,” Pritchett said.

While on the trip, each student had to come up with a unique project to help educate the Kenyan children. Pritchett’s project involved studying the Ol Ntutu Arid Zone School’s forage plots. It led her to plenty of memorable interactions with the school children.

“While on the trip, the students got to interact with the Kenyan children as they worked on their unique on-site student projects. I had a lot of kids there, very eager to help, very eager to want to be there, and I thought that was great because they got to learn my thought process on the forage,” she said.

Durfee led a project that involved the use of Biochar to help water retention in the Maasai school gardens. She also took a liking to the Kenyan children and their willingness to learn.

“We’d ask them questions and they [would] know the answers for them, just about basic gardening,” Durfee said.

“I had a big group of shy kids, so it was kind of hard getting them to talk. But I mean, most everywhere we went, they were so willing to come and say ‘hi’ and ask how we were. [They] wanted to know so much about us, like go through our phones and pictures and stuff,” she said.

Both students praised Family and Consumer Science associate professor Dr. Keith Dooley for his leadership throughout the trip, whether he was managing the hectic flight process or the inter-cultural relations between the students and the Kenyan children.

“I think through our whole luggage lost, planes rerouted [situation], he was so great during that. He really knew exactly what to do and how to get us where we needed to go. And he really stayed as calm as possible in that situation and got us where we needed to go,” Pritchett said.

In summer 2026, the third annual trip to Kenya will be led by the College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences Dean Todd Winters.

Winters has slated the trip for May 12-30, about a week after finals will be finished.

“We’ve got a lot of interest for next year. We’re we actually right now have more interest than we have slots to fill. Next year we’re hoping to bring 21 people,” Winters said.

Even though the trip is tied most directly to agriculture-related majors, Winters assured it will not be exclusive to them.

“We do like to have a diverse group too. So we will be taking some non-majors as well,” Winters said.

In retrospect, both Durfee and Pritchett enjoyed the trip and recommend that other members of the student body make the same decision they did.

“It was definitely life-changing because I went in there kind of shy, not really wanting to do a lot socially, and then I come to these  schools and I’m swarmed by 500 kids who all they want to do is know about me and just talk and learn more,” Durfee said.

“It was very eye-opening, just seeing like the things that they very much cherish to the things that we very much take advantage of, being as they are cherishing the tattered clothes that they have, [while] we throw away clothes with holes in them,” Pritchett said.

Pritchett ended by urging the student body to consider the trip, regardless of their fears and anxieties.

“You get to see things that you’d never see in your lifetime if you weren’t to go on that trip. And you never have an opportunity to grow unless you take the opportunities that are given to you.”