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Inside Hokie Sports
Yosuah Nijman stands 6-foot-7 and weighs 300 pounds, and in late May, he crammed himself into an airplane seat for a 14-hour trip to Rwanda, a
small country in Central Africa.
“It’s hard being 6-7 and traveling in economy,” he said, smiling.
Nijman was part of a small contingent of Virginia Tech student-athletes, students and administrators who traveled to Rwanda as part of UAP 3984: Sport,
Policy and Society—a study abroad course that explores different sectors of international development and how sports can support such development.
Danny White, associate AD for student-athlete development, oversaw the course and led the group, which included 10 student-athletes: Nijman, Vinny
Mihota (football), Ty Outlaw (men’s basketball), Matt Dudon (men’s soccer), Adriana Grabski (women’s swimming), Kelly Henry (women’s swimming),
Sydney Pesetti (women’s swimming), Logan Williams (women’s swimming), B.C. LaPrade (wrestling) and Jordan Hemmen (women’s soccer). Also, Tech
students Emily Mertes and Joseph Cruz took part.
They spent the majority of their two-week trip in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. While there, they went to the Kigali Genocide Memorial, which honors
the more than 250,000 people who were killed by a government-led faction during a three-month period in 1994.
None of the students had been born when this event took place, and few knew more than a few details, as the American education system tends to
focus more on historical events that impacted the U.S.
“I learned about the genocide and how that ties into the culture and where they are now,” Nijman said. “I’ve learned how they’ve grown from that, and
forgiveness is one of the biggest components in how they’re living now. That was an eye opener to me, and I feel that it’s important to be taught about
how people can come together after such a tragedy. The genocide memorial was one of the highlights of the trip.”
The group also went to Akagera National Park as part of a safari trip, toured the Rwanda National Olympic Committee offices, met with a representative
of the Rwanda Youth Peace Clubs Organization, and taught physical education classes at an international school.
White oversaw a class session each day, with the emphasis being on understanding international development and how sport aids in that development.
The students read and wrote papers, and they participated in discussions about what they saw, and more importantly, learned that day.
“We had a journal entry every day,” Mihota said. “We had two one-page papers and a final paper when we got back.
“But most of it was hands-on stuff that you can’t read in textbooks. It’s the best way to learn, just going over there, and we met with other organizations
that were helping to develop the country. It was cool to see their approach as to how they get things done.”
This year marked the sixth consecutive year in which a group of Virginia Tech student-athletes spent a portion of the summer studying abroad. In that
time frame, approximately 90 student-athletes have traveled to places like the Dominican Republic, Switzerland and now Rwanda.
The goal is to challenge them and to expose them to the challenges that people in other parts of the world face to deepen their understanding.
Hopefully, these young men and women feel compelled to make a difference.
In other words, the goal is to compel them to live up to Virginia Tech’s motto,
Ut Prosim
(“That I May Serve”). The course and trip goes a long way
toward doing that.
HOKIE CONTINGENT TAKES
SUMMER TRIP TO RWANDA
Supporting Tech Athletics Since 1949