Rachel Banda, a teaching assistant for the Department of Communication Arts, was recently awarded an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin congratulated Banda, calling the fellowship a “truly remarkable achievement,” and commending her for “joining an elite group of scholars whose work empowers women and girls.”
Since 1917, the AAUW International Fellowship program has provided financial support for women who are not U.S. citizens to seek graduate and postdoctoral studies. Banda, who is pursuing a MS in Curriculum and Instruction, says that the award will help her achieve her goals of educating the youth in her home country of Malawi.
Banda started teaching this year at UW, but before coming here taught for 9 years in renowned schools in Malawi, including the African Bible College Christian Academy (ABCCA). In 2020, Banda founded what she calls the Reading and Writing Clinic Malawi, where she teaches students who don’t have the resources to afford private schools to read and write English out of her home. Through the clinic, Banda also helps other teachers learn how to teach English.
“When a child doesn’t know how to read and I get to help them it just excites me so much,” Banda says, “My plan is to go back home to continue the Reading and Writing Clinic in Malawi…but I need this education so that I can know how to best help them.”
The AAUW International Fellowship is granted to graduate students who “lead innovative community projects to empower women and girls,” and intend to return to their home countries to continue these projects. Banda says the award will support her as she learns a new set of diverse skills that will translate to her teaching efforts in Malawi.
“I think my teaching experience here is shaping me to know how to deal with different levels of students and people who come from different backgrounds,” she says. “That's one of the things that I do with the Reading and Writing Clinic, and so while I’m here I’m learning new methodologies that I can include in my teaching.”
Here at UW, Banda leads an introductory speech communication course as a teaching assistant. Having previously taught middle school, she says that the experience of teaching college-aged students has been enlightening.
“I just love my students and my classes,” Banda says. “It's a learning process for me as well because I used to sing songs and dance with my middle schoolers!”
As a mother of two, Banda said that applying for the AAUW fellowship was “a leap of faith” for her, and that the award is the result of many late nights.
“Looking back on the application process is just crazy,” she says. “I spent sleepless nights working on the application. I would come home from work, be with my family…and when my family went to bed, I would stay up late working on it.”
As she joins an elite group of more than 320 AAUW fellows, Banda says that she is excited and honored to be granted the award.
“To be given this scholarship means the world to me,” she says. “It’s something that I’m really proud of.”