KENT—Many independent school teachers like to do something different on their summer vacations, other than teaching, but Kristin and Mike Benjamin are traveling halfway around the world to spend three weeks in Africa this summer teaching girls from Afghanistan.
It will be the third summer that Kristin has volunteered as a summer teacher for three weeks at the School of Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA) and she leaves next week. Mike is currently there and coming home in a week, after his second summer teaching for three weeks.
“They are willing learners and appreciate the education they are receiving,” Kristin said of the students. “The mission of the school is so unique. It is the only school for Afghan girls over sixth grade in the world. When it was founded it was the only boarding school for Afghan girls.”
Both are longtime teachers at Kent School. Kristin serves as the Language Department chair and teaches modern languages, specializing in French. Mike is a science teacher and holds the Norman Scott Jr. 1940 Teaching Chair in Physics. Both have become supporters of SOLA since Kent School began its partnership in 2021, when the Taliban took over Afghanistan. They have been host parents for Afghan girls who have attended Kent School. Kent hosted four students this year, two of whom graduated in June.
Privacy is important to SOLA to protect the identities of its students so no names or photographs are allowed of its students who study in the United States.
After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the co-founder and president of SOLA Shabana Basij-Rasikh arranged to move the school to Kigali, Rwanda. She partnered with people like Kent School’s Head of School Michael Hirschfeld, who was one of the first people to offer her assistance during those turbulent times. She shared this story as the Kent School graduation speaker June 2.
“I remember the darkness and the sadness – the horror of everything happening around me,” she said. At that exact time, she received an email from Hirschfeld with a subject line “What can I do to help?” The one email brought about so many partnerships between SOLA and other organizations worldwide, including Kent School.
The Benjamins learned in the winter of the 2021-22 academic year that SOLA was looking for teachers to volunteer that summer in Rwanda and they jumped at the opportunity.
“The girls are there year round so they have to do something in the summer and their academic year is a bit different from ours. They have a break for Ramadan and they have breaks at different times of the year,” Kristin said during an interview Tuesday. “Inviting American teachers to come as well would help those students who were then going to transition to American schools to get to know some things about American teachers and the American school system that would make it easier for them.”
The girls had never been taught by male teachers so Mike was in a unique position. His female students didn’t quite know how to address him. They call all the teachers Miss with their first name, so she was Miss Kristin.
“They never had male teachers before so they had to adjust to that. Initially it was Miss Mike. Then they started calling me Madame Kristin, which is fine. Then they started calling Mike, Madame Mr. Mike. So that was objectively funny so they kept doing it,” Kristin said.
The first summer Kristin taught French.
“That was hilarious and they loved it,” she said. “I’m not going to pretend that three weeks of French with me is going to have a long lasting impact. The first summer I taught almost all of the girls at the school.”
Mike decided to teach Astronomy. He was prepared with an app on his phone that shows the night sky wherever he is in the world. What he wasn’t prepared for was the conditions he found.
“What he failed to account for was the hideous pollution in the city. You cannot see any stars ever,” Kristin remembered. He adjusted his lesson plans. “He taught them about planets. In the parking lot they would get chalk and draw the solar system.”
This summer Mike is teaching math for science. If the girls are going to take Chemistry or Physics, he’s giving them some of the terminology and some of the concepts they’ll need when they take the science classes.
Kristin switched last summer to teaching English. Not unfamiliar with teaching English as a Second Language (ESL), it was a role she had when she previously taught at Westover School prior to joining the Kent faculty in 1997. She will be working with the school’s youngest students on the alphabet, as well as teaching the staff. The school offers admission to students going into sixth grade through 10th grade in Rwanda and then arranges for the older girls to finish their high school education in US boarding schools.
She is looking forward to using her own alphabet skills as she’s been working on learning the Arabic alphabet on Duolingo to help her decipher what words sound like in the Afghan dialects of Farsi, Dari or Pashto. She learned Russian in college in much the same way.
“I want to be able to understand what’s going on around me,” she said, adding the girls do speak English around her and the other teachers.
“They are so friendly – culturally open and friendly people. They say hello to everyone,” Kristin said. “After all that they’ve been through you would not blame them for not wanting to reach out. They’re just regular kids. They like K-pop and ice cream. They do not like vegetables at all.”
A special graduation ceremony will be held at SOLA while Kristin is there to recognize all of this year’s graduating seniors, who are flying back to Rwanda from the US.
She looks forward to meeting up with one girl for a chess re-match. As a high school chess club member, Kristin knows her way around the board.
“She destroyed me and I said, ‘wow this was humbling. I’m going to practice my chess and will get better.’ She said, ‘OK, so will I,’ “ Kristin said laughing.
In a text from Rwanda, Mike shared that he enjoys his work with the SOLA girls.
“Two main things have drawn me back to Rwanda: the SOLA students, who are brimming with positivity and passion for learning; and SOLA’s mission, which is to educate girls and young women who will one day return to Afghanistan and lead their country to a more just and prosperous future.”
Kristin can’t say enough about SOLA’s leader, Basij-Rasikh. She credits her with keeping close tabs and being in constant communication with all of the students studying in the US.
“She’s an amazing person. She’s absolutely one of my heroes,” Kristin said. “She’s a tiny person but she walks into a room and everybody knows it. Everybody listens to her.”
Kristin encourages those that want to know more about the school to watch the 60 Minutes story that was first aired in February 2023 and some of it was filmed during the summer of 2022 when she was there.
“I’m in it for a hot second. Mike is too and you can actually hear his voice,” Kristin said. She was pleased to meet reporter Leslie Stahl. The story can be seen on YouTube. It is a humanizing portrait of the girls. She also recommends watching “Escape from Kabul,” a documentary on Max, which gives a detailed look into the evacuation of the city in August 2021. National Geographic is visiting SOLA this summer.
More information about SOLA can be found on its website.
