By Brooke Adams
From August to December 2022, the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture hosted nine Faculty Exchange Program (FEP) and five Scientific Exchange Program (SEP) fellows from four African countries. These programs are funded through the Foreign Agriculture Service (FAS) at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and they focus on veterinary teacher pedagogy and animal health governance. Marcy Souza, professor and associate dean for outreach and global engagement at UTIA CVM, served as the project lead for both programs. The visiting SEP fellows were all from Kenya, and the FEP fellows were from Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. They were matched with faculty members from three different UT colleges for mentorship for the duration of their programs. Learn more about each fellow and their mentor throughout this #FacultyExchangeFriday blog series.
Mohamed Ally is a lecturer at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania. In this position, he teaches undergraduates and postgraduate students, supervises practical field training for undergrads, and conducts extension outreach that focuses on advising farmers on disease prevention. Read more about his experience as an FEP fellow below!
Q: What interested you about this program?
Some of my colleagues had participated in this program before the Covid pandemic, and I had become interested in participating after hearing about the experiences they had. During that same time period, I was tasked with reviewing course syllabi. I had never done this before, and I realized I wasn’t sure how to approach it. My colleagues had learned how to review course syllabi through participating in the FEP program, so I realized it might be a good opportunity to help strengthen my skills as a teacher.
Q: What were some highlights of the program for you?
I have had many highlights while in the program because everything in it has been beneficial for me and my colleagues. I really liked learning about syllabus development and how to create an effective and helpful outline of the courses we teach. I thoroughly enjoyed learning how to incorporate ethics into institutional research and how that can impact our students personally and professionally. I was also able to learn how to implement multiple choice questions into the curriculum to evaluate students and their progression.
Another highlight during this program was being able to see the coordination between the local, county, state, and federal government when it comes to disease reporting and prevention. It was very interesting to me how involved the USDA and other agencies are in the disease prevention and reporting process.
Q: What are you next steps following your completion of this fellowship?
I would like to help increase the disease tracking coordination with the veterinarian council and my university to help prevent disease outbreaks. From there, the Principal can discuss and help implement better tracking coordination with Ministry officials. I also plan to review syllabi for physiology courses with the knowledge I have gained throughout this program.
Additionally, I plan to introduce a journal club at the college to help faculty and postgraduate students learn how to carry out analysis of articles. I will implement the new teaching knowledge and skills I have learned into my courses and teaching, as well as reorganizing the way we do teacher and course evaluations at the end of the semesters.
Q: Why do you view exchange programs like this one as being important?
I think that this program and similar ones are very beneficial to improve teaching skills along with creating collaborations between different universities for research and publications. My university has less resources, so having these collaborations with UTIA can improve the research being done and elevate publications.
Q: What was your favorite part about being at UT and in Knoxville, TN?
I was very excited to come to Tennessee and experience different cultures and geography. I was initially worried about safety within the city, however the people here are so kind, charming, and friendly. I was looking forward to seeing the Tennessee river so I enjoyed that.