BASIS Independent McLean Students Take Summer Trip To Inaugurate African Schoolhouse

MCLEAN, VA — Students from BASIS Independent McLean traveled to Senegal this summer to inaugurate a new schoolhouse they had raised thousands of dollars to build.

The trip to the town of Khombole, about a 90-minute drive east of Senegal’s capital city of Dakar, was a perfect language-building opportunity for the students from BASIS Independent McLean's French program and allowed the students to learn about Senegalese culture.

Elisabeth Seye, who teaches French at BASIS Independent McLean, takes her French students on trips to Senegal and other French-speaking parts of the world each year. This summer, Seye and a group of 22 BASIS students and parents went on the trip to Senegal.

BASIS Independent McLean and its sister schools across the country are owned by Spring Education Group, a California company that oversees a network of about 220 schools.

Seye wanted her students — in grades 7th through 12th — to see the results of their fundraising efforts and make connections with similarly aged students in Senegal. After three years of fundraising, the BASIS Independent McLean French Honor Society raised enough money to build the new schoolhouse for students in Khombole, replacing a much smaller building that had a thatched roof and couldn't withstand the rainy season.

The public school in Khombole was built in phases as the money was raised and completed last December after a total of $12,000 had been donated by the McLean students.

In the U.S., $12,000 to build a schoolhouse would seem inexpensive, but in Senegal, that amount of money went a long way, Seye said. And the McLean students worked hard to raise the money for the new school, she added.

Along with formally inaugurating the schoolhouse, the BASIS Independent McLean students delivered laptops to the school in Khombole, the first laptops the school has ever had. The McLean students also brought a projector, clothing, school supplies, and a $1,000 check to cover additional items for the school.

The relationship between the two schools dates back to 2016, when Seye joined BASIS Independent McLean as one of its founding faculty members. Seye's students previously raised money for a new library used by several schoolhouses in Khombole, all located within a 5-minute walk of each other.

In 2018, BASIS Independent McLean students also raised money to install an electric water pump in a well in Khombole that had been out of use. The well is now functioning and able to provide water to schoolchildren and local residents.

Among all the projects in which BASIS Independent McLean students have participated in Senegal, raising money to build the new schoolhouse — named École 6 —has been the most impactful, Seye said.

"This is the first time they've had a brick-and-mortar school that they can count on will be there every day no matter what the weather conditions are," Seye explained.

Senegal gained its independence from France in 1960. French is the official language of the country, and its native language is Wolof.

In terms of taking her French students on overseas trips, Seye said the BASIS Independent McLean students and their parents are more interested in traveling to French-speaking places outside of France. Previous plans to travel to Paris generated less interest from students and their parents.

BASIS Independent McLean students also have made strong connections with their counterparts in Senegal and other countries where they have gone on school-sponsored trips. The president of the French Honor Society at BASIS Independent McLean, for example, is already working with a student in Khombole on an art project called the Dakar Youth Museum.

"The desire from my students, not only to get involved but stay involved, is super important," Seye said. "Not just roll in and do something nice and roll out and then that's the end of it. But to continue it. That comes through building these relationships."

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