The summer of 2024 is something Destiny Shaw will never forget.

For a month, the Montgomery City resident went on a research trip to Africa with a group of Missouri State University students. It turned out to be the best trip she ever had.

Shaw, who wrapped up her first year at Missouri State, was in Africa from May 22-June 21. It was the first time she went on a trip outside the United States.

“I wanted to stay,” Shaw said. “I feel like I could live there forever. The people were so nice. I loved helping all of them.”

Shaw went on the trip with seven other students, a professor, a bus driver and another person. While in Africa, she visited countries such as Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. When she first arrived on the continent on May 22, she saw a monkey.

Shaw said she found out that Africa was much different than the United States.

“I am so thankful for everything that I have,” she said. “There is so much that we, as Americans, take for granted. Even having clear water that comes out of our faucet is a blessing.”

Dr. Mary Willis, the head of sociology, anthropology and gerontology department at Missouri State, was the organizer of the research trip to Africa. She first started her research educational abroad program 10 years ago when she worked at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

“It meant to take students to a region of the world they don’t often choose for their study abroad and give them training and research and let them experience the kind of immersion in the community,” Dr. Willis said.

Dr. Willis, who has taught at Missouri State since 2022, has taken eight students to Africa for the second year in a row. She said she got all of her students, including Shaw, to choose an area of research at the Africa trip.

“Destiny was a very easy shadow to set up because she wants to be a history education teacher,” Dr. Willis said. “But she also specializes in disabilities. So she was able to shadow in classrooms in several schools where they have programs for students with disabilities. That was interesting for her and it was helpful for her because she can see how another country incorporates and supports and helps children who don’t have all of the same skills and abilities in the classroom.”

Dr. Willis said she admired Shaw’s work ethic during the trip.

“I was impressed with her great skill and her determination,” the professor said. “When she didn’t know something, she kept trying. So she deserves a lot of credit.”

Shaw said her favorite part of the trip was teaching the students.

“That was really rewarding,” Shaw said.

Shaw’s trip to Africa cost about $10,000. She raised the money for the trip by doing substitute teaching, working at a fast-food restaurant and getting three scholarships.

“Dr. Willis let anybody go if we can pay for it,” Shaw said. “So that was pretty nice. But it took a lot of work, money and scholarships to go.”
Dr. Willis said Shaw received a huge scholarship that helped her go to Africa. She was the recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, which is named after the late congressman from New York.

“It’s a very prestigious scholarship,” Dr. Willis said. “I think students oftentimes go to college and don’t realize that the government does care about students getting chances. Destiny couldn’t have gone on the program without having support from her community, her church and from all these different entities on campus. She got money on campus and she got money from the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. She worked hard to go on this program.”

Next year, Shaw will make a presentation of her trip at a meeting that will be held at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg.

“Every year, Missouri State University participates in the Missouri Academy of Science,” Dr. Willis said. “All eight students are just now polishing the data. We’ve been home for a month. We’ll get the data polished and cleaned up and each person will take their data and they will make a research poster. That research poster will be entered into the Missouri Academy of Science.”

Shaw, who graduated from Montgomery County High School in 2023, will be a junior at Missouri State this fall. She said she plans to apply what she learned from her Africa trip to her daily life.

“I will always think about how much I have that so many other people don’t have, like water and a car,” Shaw said. “There are so many things that we take for granted. I don’t have a lot of money, but I still have so much more than other people. It’s really mind-blowing.”