Wellspring Academy is now a full Primary School running from Kindergarten through Grade 6. With the school expanding, new teachers were needed and the Academy welcomed several new staff. One of the new teachers is Stephen Rudakemwa.

Stephen heard about Wellspring Academy while he was still studying at the Kigali Institute of Education. While going to school, he also worked part-time as a translator for an NGO. A woman who worked at the NGO has children who attend the school and when she found out Stephen was getting his degree in education, she told him what a great school the Wellspring Academy is. Stephen had visited the school, but never imagined that he would one day be working there.

“After graduating in 2009, I figured I’d give it a shot even though several of the other applicants were fellow classmates so I knew them well and feared their intellectual ability!” Stephen's application was successful and he was chosen to teach Grade 6 Social Studies and Grade 5 English.

New Wellspring Academy teacher Stephen Rudakemwa with some of his students

Unlike Primary Schools in North America, Wellspring doesn’t have classroom teachers. For the higher grades, each teacher focuses on particular subjects. Stephen prefers this way of teaching because he feels it allows teachers to specialize in those subjects which are most interesting to them.

Coming to work at Wellspring Academy has been a wonderful thing for Stephen, but it has also had its challenges. With only two years of previous experience under his belt, it was difficult to come to a school where the teaching techniques are so different from other schools. “I had never before seen education like this. It is not teacher centered, but the teacher acts as a facilitator to the learners and actually values them and their ideas.”

Stephen is thankful for the ongoing support of the Administration in transitioning to this new style of teaching. They assist him by observing his lessons and then helping him see how to improve in certain areas. Stephen has also appreciated the way the staff all work together and really care about each other. “During the first month of working, I was very short on money and struggling to pay for transportation and a place to live. But without me even saying anything, another teacher generously gave me some money because she knew that starting out can be difficult. I was amazed! The teachers here consider others’ problems as their own.”

That is what education at Wellspring Academy is all about. The teachers don’t simply tell the students about values and how to love their neighbor, but they set an example through their own lives.