Twenty-one Detroit Public Schools Community District students spent part of their summer mixing cement and hauling materials in 95-degree heat, helping rural Senegalese villagers build a primary school from the ground up. The students, chosen from a pool of 2,946 Detroit students for their service and leadership, represented seven buildOn partner high schools before returning home to a district in the middle of its own construction overhaul.
The trip was organized through buildOn, a nonprofit that combines youth service work with leadership development, according to the Michigan Chronicle. Founded in 1991 by Jim Ziolkowski, the organization has constructed more than 2,600 primary schools across eight developing nations, serving over 346,000 students and adult learners daily, according to buildOn. In Senegal alone, the group has built 541 primary schools and enrolled more than 62,000 students across rural villages.
Two district staff members joined the students on the trip, which buildOn fully funded, including international airfare. The teens spent roughly four hours a day helping with construction alongside rural Senegalese residents, then stayed with host families in the village for the rest of their time there. Between work shifts, the group took part in daily discussions about solidarity, courage, resilience, empathy and possibility, part of buildOn's broader push to pair physical labor with leadership development.
A Visit to Gorée Island
The itinerary also included a visit to Gorée Island, the small landmass roughly three kilometers off the coast of Dakar that UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site in 1978. The island houses the House of Slaves, or Maison des Esclaves, which serves as an international memorial to the transatlantic slave trade and was among the earliest West African coastal posts occupied by European traders from the 15th to the 19th century, per UNESCO.
Vanessa Roberson, a student at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, said the experience reshaped how she thinks about schooling back home. She learned that education is important and cannot be taken away once obtained, according to the Michigan Chronicle's reporting. Roberson also raised concerns about immigration enforcement and students being separated from their communities, reflecting a theme students carried into other parts of their service work.
Beyond the build site, students took part in cultural activities including farming, couscous making, Senegalese wrestling and a traditional wedding ceremony. The group also worked on an unrelated project back home, creating informational whistle kits about rights and encounters with immigration enforcement, part of buildOn's broader emphasis on students addressing issues like hunger, environmental projects, and work with children and older adults in their own neighborhoods.
Why Rural Senegal, Specifically
The choice of a rural village wasn't incidental. World Bank figures compiled by The Borgen Project show out-of-school rates among primary-school-age children in Senegal reach 49% in rural areas, compared with 21% in urban centers. UNESCO Institute for Statistics data puts the country's adult literacy rate at roughly 50% to 61% as of 2023, while World Bank assessments estimate learning poverty — the inability of 10-year-olds to read and understand a simple text — at 69% nationwide.
As part of its partnership agreements with host villages, buildOn requires communities to pledge equal primary school enrollment for girls and boys, an effort to close rural gender gaps in education. The organization reports that 93% of students who remain involved throughout high school graduate on time, and that participants are 21% more likely to enroll in college.
Bryant Tipton, principal of Pershing High School and a nearly three-decade veteran of DPSCD, said the students noticed the contrasts between Detroit and the Senegalese village where they worked. Tipton has also been a visible presence in his own school's neighborhood challenges; he spoke to Hoodline's coverage in February 2024 after city officials padlocked a business across from the East Seven Mile Road campus for allegedly selling tobacco and marijuana to minors.
A District Also Under Construction
The Senegal trip lands at an odd moment for Pershing High School itself, which is preparing to say goodbye to its current building. The Class of 2027 will be the school's final graduating class in the current facility before it transitions to a new campus, part of a $700 million facility investment master plan the DPSCD school board unanimously approved in May 2022. The plan, funded through federal American Rescue Plan relief dollars and capital reserves rather than new local tax bonds, calls for rebuilding five district high schools.
Hoodline reported earlier this month that Cody High School, another of the five campuses in the rebuild program, reached a topping-out construction milestone as Detroit eyes a 2027 opening for its new facility. Michigan lawmakers have also directed state support toward buildOn's Detroit programming, including grant funding included in the Legislature's 2024–2025 budget process under Senate Bill 860 to expand service-learning opportunities for local high schoolers.
For the 21 students who traveled to Senegal and came home to a district rebuilding around them, the lessons of the trip were framed as ones about service and strengthening their own community. DPSCD students take part in buildOn programs across Detroit throughout the school year, working on hunger relief, environmental projects and initiatives that connect them with both children and older adults.
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