By CARISSA MALLORY, Viper Contributor
Last summer, my friend Sara and I traveled to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to explore opportunities to help increase graduation rates. I learned about the Tanzanian education crisis a few years ago when my aunt Theo, a native of Tanzania informed me that schools in Africa are very different from the ones here in the United States. I was surprised and shocked to learn about the high dropout rate for students in Tanzania. Their approach to education seemed dysfunctional, flawed and tragic.

Vandegrift High School students Carissa Mallory (right) and Sara Campbell (left) sit in the new library they helped create last summer at the Gerezani Primary School in Tanzania. They are challenging students to help them fill the library with more books with the Reading Around the World’s Spring Break challenge.