Thanks to Senior WISER Member Maya Singh for her willingness to write a piece on WISER for The Lion’s Gazette! 

The two are inexorably connected to me now: Dwight and WISER; when I think of one, I think of the other. 

Since 2008, Dwight has been partnered with the Women’s Institution for Secondary Education and Research, more well known as WISER, which is a girls’ school in Muhuru Bay, Kenya. The boarding school offers hundreds of female students a chance to overcome life obstacles, including poverty and sexism, through education, and provides its pupils with clothes, books, housing, healthy food, and medical care to equip them for an education. WISER fosters a learning environment in which supportive teachers, clubs, competitions, career counseling, clean facilities, and academic tutoring allow students to reach their full academic and social potential. 

Dwight’s partnership with WISER has spread over several years and has become an integral part of the community. Each year, students and faculty alike participate in a week of fundraising for WISER dubbed “WISER Week.” The Dwight WISER club also organizes other efforts — bake sales, donation pages, events, presentations — to show support for the WISER school both financially and verbally. Each year, Dwight helps to raise around $3,000 – $5,000 for WISER, all led by student efforts.

Dwight has also organized multiple trips to the WISER campus in Muhuru Bay, Kenya, in which Dwight students were given the opportunity to collaborate with the WISER girls and experience life at the school and its surrounding town. 

Most of our efforts in the club are focused on planning for WISER Week, but after the event takes place, we have established a number of other fundraisers. These include a school-wide Walkathon and a cooking competition among others. Each year, the club collaborates to devise creative ways to gain attention and funds for this worthwhile cause.

After hearing about WISER for my whole life, being in the club since 9th grade, and being its President for the last two, I can confidently say that being a part of WISER and advocating for these young women has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life and has taught me to be a better person. I love working with the other club members to fundraise for a cause we all care about, which creates a great sense of community amongst us and ultimately connects us to the girls at WISER, uniting around an important cause to all of us.