The vision of Williams in Africa is to create a structure that encourages students to engage meaningfully with the African continent, starting with the summer at the end of their freshman year and continuing all the way through until after graduation. Some students will just have one experience in Africa, which we hope will transform their understanding and the work they end up doing even if they never return to that continent. Others will develop a much deeper engagement, and we want to support whatever degree of commitment they move towards, including those who may become young leaders committed to Africa’s advancement.

The initiative also seeks to empower faculty beyond those with existing experience in Africa to build on their disciplinary expertise to create innovative field-based classes and projects in a variety of African countries.

By proposing the establishment of the Williams in Africa office, we hope to create an institutional structure that will take responsibility for safety, health, financial and logistical issues, allowing faculty to create classes and do summer study programs in a sustained and structured manner.

Moreover, Williams in Africa seeks to build an engagement with Africa that has its own coherence and relates to the growing Africana Studies program, complementing that program’s existing intellectual strengths and African-American and Caribbean focus with a more experiential approach and opportunities to learn in Africa.

• 
  January- Williams in Africa Website is created, links to Africana Studies, et al.;Dealmaking trip by Michael MacDonald to Capetown to work out Capetown Policy in Action pilot for 2009 or more likely 2010;
  Promotion of Pilot if starting in Fall 09
• 
  February - Select students for Summer 2009 Uganda Program pilot
• March-April - Oversight Committee refines assessment tool for summer pilot
• April 1 – Deadline for Interstudy Policy in Action Pilot (if running in Fall 09)
• May- Pre-program survey/interviews of program participants
• June 14 – Uganda Summer Pilot Program begins
• July 27- Uganda Summer Pilot Program ends
• August- Post-program assessments (survey/interviews)
• August 15-Hire part time Program Director
• September-October- Review of Uganda pilot & development of 2010 programs
• October 30- Report to DoF of program review results
  & recommendation regarding 2010 summer pilots
• November- Recruitment of students for 2010 summer programs