SLU Jesuit Visits Students in Kenya

The Saint Louis University-Jesuit Worldwide Learning program offers bachelor's degrees to international students displaced by conflict, lack of opportunity, and poverty in places such as refugee camps in Kenya and Malawi.

At the end of May, Matthew Baugh, S.J., academic program director in Catholic Studies at Saint Louis University, had the opportunity to visit with the SLU students at Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya.

Fr. Baugh is currently serving in Kakuma as part of his Jesuit “tertianship,” or the final stage of Jesuit formation. 

As part of his apostolic mission, he has been teaching history, theology and English grammar to refugees at Somali Bantu Secondary School, one of seven high schools in the camp run by the Jesuit Refugee Service.

Baugh’s teaching and research focuses on Catholic political thought, with special attention to migration and displacement. A third of the students in his most recent Ignite Seminar, “Church, State, and Displaced Person,” were themselves migrants, coming from different parts of Africa and the Middle East. But working daily with refugee youth has deepened Baugh’s understanding of the particular barriers they face—and the rare opportunities that programs like SLU’s provide.

Baugh’s visit, conducted on behalf of SLU’s Office of the Provost, was an opportunity to connect directly with students, staff and administrators and reaffirm the University’s commitment to this groundbreaking global program.

“It’s inspiring to see how much it means to these students to be part of SLU,” Baugh said. “They’re proud to be Billikens. And we can be very proud of them too. As SLU continues its work with Jesuit Worldwide Learning, stories like those unfolding in Kakuma serve as a vivid reminder of what Jesuit higher education is all about: believing in people and sharing with them the best of what we have to give.”