Arkansas Tech University continued an ongoing international partnership on Tuesday, Sept. 29, by signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Ray of Hope Academy in Douala, Cameroon.
The MOU calls for ATU and Ray of Hope to “cooperate for the purpose of providing a mutual beneficial partnership to improve the learning outcomes of educational stakeholders” from their respective institutions.
Under the points of agreement contained in the document, Arkansas Tech will seek to provide professional development for Ray of Hope faculty and staff while Ray of Hope will strive to develop opportunities for ATU College of Education and Health students and faculty to observe its school operations, interview or survey Ray of Hope stakeholders and/or complete international field experiences.
In addition, the ATU College of Education and Health and Ray of Hope have agreed to collaborate in the areas of lesson planning and other educational practices for the benefit of students and faculty at both entities. ATU and Ray of Hope will also work together to identify and seek potential grant funds supporting their collaborative efforts.
ATU and Ray of Hope will utilize distance technology to conduct interactions and achieve shared objectives.
Former Arkansas Tech student Ernest Ehabe founded Ray of Hope in his native Cameroon in 2016 after he and his wife recognized a gap in special needs education when none was available in Douala for their child.
A large percentage of the more than 100 students enrolled at Ray of Hope have been diagnosed with autism or Down syndrome.
Over the past 10 years, students and faculty from the ATU College of Education and Health have participated in projects that led to sharing lesson plans, activity ideas and donated supplies with the students and faculty at Ray of Hope. Special education students at ATU are planning to use 3D printers to create adaptive learning tools proven to aid students with autism and send them to the academy in Cameroon.
Ray of Hope Academy is currently raising funds to develop a new campus that will better serve its students needs.
Learn more about Ray of Hope at https://breadforlife.org.
Learn more about the ATU College of Education and Health at www.atu.edu/ceh.
