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NCAA News Archive - 2007
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Far-outreach
Student-athlete goes intercontinental to fulfill kind-hearted mission
Student-athlete goes intercontinental to fulfill kind-hearted mission
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By Leilana McKindra
The NCAA News
The NCAA News
As a linebacker and one of the leading tacklers for University of the South football squad, Tyler Brantley is used to filling gaps and meeting challenges head on.
Not surprisingly then, off the field Brantley recently stepped up to fill a different and critical need over the summer when he spent a month teaching school children in Tanzania.
Brantley wanted a trip that would incorporate some kind of volunteer work, and when a friend called about traveling to Africa, Brantley readily agreed.
“We looked at the map and said, ‘How about Tanzania?’ ” said Brantley.
As casual as their decision seemed, their mission was anything but. Brantley said teachers in Tanzania are undersupplied, underpaid and stretched too thin. The HIV/AIDS epidemic also has left about a 20-year gap in the workforce.
Brantley landed in Moshi, Tanzania, a small town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, and after a two-day orientation took his place at the front of the classroom. The Tanzanian primary school system runs from Standards 1 through 7. Brantley was assigned two sections each of Standards 5 and 6.
“It was ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ at first,” said Brantley, who had no formal teaching experience other than a summer spent as an assistant youth director organizing activities for kids. “Just because you’re from somewhere outside the country, they assume you have this broad teaching ability and are able to do a lot of things.”
The language barrier proved to be the toughest hurdle. Although Tanzania does have a standardized syllabus for all public schools, the communication challenge led Brantley to design most of his own lesson plans based the syllabus to aid students’ understanding. He also greeted the students in Swahili while they returned the greeting in English.
“That was definitely one of my favorite parts of the day — when all the kids would stand up and say, ‘Good morning, teacher,’ ” he said. ”Then we had a little conversation back and forth.”
Beyond the hour he spent teaching each day, he helped grade students’ workbooks and assisted in the nursery, a room Brantley said was the size of a racquet ball court with “about 100 crazy, adrenaline-pumping 4- and 5-year-olds.”
But the experience wasn’t all work for Brantley, who spent afternoons traveling to nearby villages. And after his month-long teaching stint, he devoted another three weeks to exploring more of the country, including a six-day climb at 19,563-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the African continent.
The group set out at 11 p.m. on the day they were to reach the summit. Hikers spent seven hours scaling a slope shale, snow and glacial fields. Brantley said he could see only about three feet in front of him.
But a stroke of perfect timing changed that.
“Our guide got us to the top right as the sun was rising,” he said. “We were above the clouds at that point and colors came out that I didn’t know existed. It was the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.”
Looking back, Brantley said while four weeks is a fleeting time, it was enough to make a lasting impression.
“You hope the 15 minutes spent helping a kid individually in class one day will change their outlook on how they come into the classroom the next day.”
The visit certainly changed Brantley, who said his most important lesson was realizing the choices people make in how they treat each other.
“While I hope the lessons I taught were effective and that the students retained some of the information, that was only half of it, if not less,” he said. “The rest was how I interacted with them. The power of something as small as a smile is exponentially greater than the effort it takes to produce it.
“While I have a great deal more to learn in my lifetime, if we can choose in our day-to-day lives to approach each other with a sincere concern, we’ll be on the right path.”
Not surprisingly then, off the field Brantley recently stepped up to fill a different and critical need over the summer when he spent a month teaching school children in Tanzania.
Brantley wanted a trip that would incorporate some kind of volunteer work, and when a friend called about traveling to Africa, Brantley readily agreed.
“We looked at the map and said, ‘How about Tanzania?’ ” said Brantley.
As casual as their decision seemed, their mission was anything but. Brantley said teachers in Tanzania are undersupplied, underpaid and stretched too thin. The HIV/AIDS epidemic also has left about a 20-year gap in the workforce.
Brantley landed in Moshi, Tanzania, a small town at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro, and after a two-day orientation took his place at the front of the classroom. The Tanzanian primary school system runs from Standards 1 through 7. Brantley was assigned two sections each of Standards 5 and 6.
“It was ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ at first,” said Brantley, who had no formal teaching experience other than a summer spent as an assistant youth director organizing activities for kids. “Just because you’re from somewhere outside the country, they assume you have this broad teaching ability and are able to do a lot of things.”
The language barrier proved to be the toughest hurdle. Although Tanzania does have a standardized syllabus for all public schools, the communication challenge led Brantley to design most of his own lesson plans based the syllabus to aid students’ understanding. He also greeted the students in Swahili while they returned the greeting in English.
“That was definitely one of my favorite parts of the day — when all the kids would stand up and say, ‘Good morning, teacher,’ ” he said. ”Then we had a little conversation back and forth.”
Beyond the hour he spent teaching each day, he helped grade students’ workbooks and assisted in the nursery, a room Brantley said was the size of a racquet ball court with “about 100 crazy, adrenaline-pumping 4- and 5-year-olds.”
But the experience wasn’t all work for Brantley, who spent afternoons traveling to nearby villages. And after his month-long teaching stint, he devoted another three weeks to exploring more of the country, including a six-day climb at 19,563-foot Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak on the African continent.
The group set out at 11 p.m. on the day they were to reach the summit. Hikers spent seven hours scaling a slope shale, snow and glacial fields. Brantley said he could see only about three feet in front of him.
But a stroke of perfect timing changed that.
“Our guide got us to the top right as the sun was rising,” he said. “We were above the clouds at that point and colors came out that I didn’t know existed. It was the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.”
Looking back, Brantley said while four weeks is a fleeting time, it was enough to make a lasting impression.
“You hope the 15 minutes spent helping a kid individually in class one day will change their outlook on how they come into the classroom the next day.”
The visit certainly changed Brantley, who said his most important lesson was realizing the choices people make in how they treat each other.
“While I hope the lessons I taught were effective and that the students retained some of the information, that was only half of it, if not less,” he said. “The rest was how I interacted with them. The power of something as small as a smile is exponentially greater than the effort it takes to produce it.
“While I have a great deal more to learn in my lifetime, if we can choose in our day-to-day lives to approach each other with a sincere concern, we’ll be on the right path.”
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