About

My name is Eleanor Kenimer and I am a graduate of Duke University, class of 2015. I studied Biology, Earth and Ocean Science, and Environmental Science and Policy. During my fall semester, 2013 I studied abroad in South Africa with the Organization for Tropical Studies and learned about conservation issues and research in Kruger National Park. I fell in love with the country and the people and knew I wanted to return some day.

In 2014 I returned to South Africa to pilot an idea I had for an environmental education and outreach program for local students around Kruger National Park (KNP). I will be working with the Nsasani Trust and the Skukuza Science Leadership Initiative to repeat this project with more students to increase our impact. The students we are targeting are high school students living nearby the park in low income areas. This project is designed to reach out to these rural high school students with a passion for science, get them into KNP and involved in environmental science and research in order to gain skills that their home schools are unable to provide them. 

The goal of this project is to create a sustainable program that can promote a dialogue of conservation principles between Kruger National Park and surrounding rural communities. In addition to giving members of the community some ownership over the park’s ecosystems, the focus of the project is to give high school students without many resources the experience and skills that will help them be competitive while applying to university or jobs in the scientific field.