It would not be an exaggeration to say that a trip to Kenya and Tanzania changed the course of Allison Furniss’s life and led to her earning a master’s degree in political science from the University of Cape Town as a Rotary Global Grant scholar.
“I went to Tanzania and Kenya in the last year of my undergraduate studies, with my brother,” says Allison, who was born and raised in Whitehorse. “That was my first time coming to Africa and I was just blown away by the warmth of the people and the vibrant cultures here.”
Since that visit as a tourist, Allison has spent several years living and working in different African countries, including Tanzania, Namibia, South Africa and the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“At the risk of sounding cliché, it really just took hold—the beauty of the continent, the people and the environment; the diversity that exists here between cultures and languages and countries; and contrasting that with extreme poverty, with the very oppressive history through colonization and all the struggles,” she says. “There is just this incredible vibrancy and beauty here and I think it really took hold.”
After graduating from Acadia University with a degree in kinesiology and nutrition, Allison looked for opportunities that would take her back to East Africa.
“I was very keen on East Africa and by chance I got an internship in Tanzania through the Canadian CIDA—the Canadian International Development Agency.”
After a year in East Africa, Allison spent three years in Namibia where she worked in sports for development and social change or sports for peacebuilding.
Those years in Africa were followed by four years back in Whitehorse.
“I worked primarily doing youth empowerment programs across the North, mostly in the Yukon but also into the NWT,” she says. “I also worked at Yukon College, which is now Yukon University, where I was supporting students in building their life skills outside of the classroom, which focused quite a lot on First Nation students and with other students who were struggling, like single moms and mature students.”
But Allison’s dream was to return to Africa.
“I always knew I wanted to do grad school at the University of Cape Town,” she says.
The route to fulfilling that lay through securing a Rotary Global Grant scholarship with the support of the Rotary Club of Whitehorse Rendezvous and District 5010.
Our District and both Whitehorse clubs provided additional funding to support Allison’s studies after the Yukon became part of District 5370.
Related article: Two Whitehorse clubs joined District 5370 on July 1
Global Grant scholarships require financial commitment from one or more Rotary clubs and the District before they are topped up by The Rotary Foundation.
“I was working on my application to the university and also working with local Rotarian Lois Craig,” Allison says. “She’s a really wonderful lady who helped me so much. I worked with her on my Global Grant application to study at UCT.”
After applying to UCT, Allison discovered that there was another hurdle she would have to deal with before entering the master’s program.
“I ended up having to do this extra honours program that they have at the University of Cape Town,” she says. “They do a three-year undergrad and then this one-year honours and then a two-year master’s. So they required me to do this honors as kind of a stepping stone into the master’s because I was changing disciplines and I have studied here before.
“I ended up getting a Global Grant for one year of the honours studies. That was funded through the Foundation and the District. At the time, Yukon was part of the District with Alaska.
“I had to reapply for the scholarship to the university. Luckily, all that came through again for a two-year master’s, which I have just finished.”
Allison is grateful for the Rotary Global Grant scholarship she received.
“It made all the difference in the world in the sense that I would have never been able to pursue graduate work without the Rotary Global Grant because I wouldn’t have been willing to take on debt,” she says. “I feel so thankful for that.”
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Allison chose the University of Cape Town because of its reputation.
“The program is really well-renowned. The University of Cape Town is a world-class institution. It’s in the top 200 in the world,” she says. “Both my master’s and honours were in the political science department in a program called Justice and Transformation, which focuses a lot on reconciliation, international human rights protection and restorative justice.
“They’re really grappling with a lot of these issues of reconciliation and restorative justice and how to build a peaceful, more just and equal society. It was also that I would be in a context in South Africa that’s leading on the issue, where I would also be living in an environment that aligns with what I’m studying.”
There is also a connections between what’s happened in South Africa since the end of apartheid and Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission process.
“I felt that we as Canadians have a lot to learn from the South African context,” she says. “I don’t know if you know this, but there were South Africans who were hired to help us design our Truth and Reconciliation Commission process. South Africa is really a leader on these issues and we as the world have a lot to learn from them.”
Allison was also attracted by the city itself.
“When I was in Tanzania, I visited Cape Town for the first time and just fell in love with the city,” she says. This place is so beautiful. You can’t believe Cape Town. It’s just mountains and ocean and it’s so beautiful. It’s so special.”
Allison conducted her research in Eastern DRC among women who work in mines to recover coltan, which is used in the production of tantalum, a key component in the manufacture of cellphones and computers.
“I did primary in-person field work, ethnographic field work with female miners in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo,” she says. “It’s essentially hand-panning like they did during the gold rush of 1898 in the Yukon. It’s literally the exact same techniques.”
Now that she has completed her master’s degree, Allison has obtained one of 16 scholarships awarded each year by the Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation to students entering a PhD program.
“I’ve switched now into the Department of Anthropology, so I’m really interdisciplinary in my studies. I’ve been kind of all over the place,” she says. “From sports science to nutrition and kinesiology, to political science and anthropology.
“It’s not because I haven’t been able to make up my mind on what I wanted to do. But it’s more a reflection of how my interests and values have changed over time and I had a big gap there, the eight years of working between my undergrad and post-grad studies. So a lot of changes in my life, my perspectives in that time, especially having worked in development in Africa for four years.”
Allison’s PhD research at UCT will build on her master’s work.
“My research will build on that and I’m particularly interested in women’s labour politics—how they organize, how they overcome exclusions that they face,” She says. “Obviously, mining is a really male-dominated industry in general.”
Reflecting on her experience as a Rotary Global Grant scholar, Allison says that the support she received was more than financial.
“I still am just blown away by the international network that exists through Rotary and how much support I received from Rotarians here in Cape Town, and also in Canada and the U.S.,” she says. “It was simple things, like Rotarians here in Cape Town meeting me at the airport when I first arrived and that kind of stuff that just makes such a big difference when you’re moving so far away and you’re new to a place. So I’m so indebted to Rotary.”
Allison hopes her studies with be “a springboard back into a career in development or humanitarian aid or peacebuilding,” she says. “I would really like to continue with research projects or work for big intergovernmental organizations like the UN or the World Bank or with the African Union.
“I’m open to going to academia even though I really had never thought about it before. That wasn’t the plan.”
While she is not yet a Rotarian—that will have to wait until after she completes her studies—Allison has maintained her connections with Rotary.
“I’m keen to maintain ties with Rotary and to stay involved with Rotary, even though I won’t be able to be a member just yet, mostly because of financial restraint.”
She occasionally attends meetings of her host club, the Rotary Club of Sea Point, and helps with Rotary and Rotaract projects.
She has also joined meetings of the Whitehorse club virtually, and had an opportunity to connect with our District—which the Whitehorse clubs joined after Allison had begun her studies in South Africa—when she joined PDG and Foundation chair Tim Schilds and Sally for dinner while they were visiting South Africa in early 2020.
“So it was really nice to connect with the District that Yukon now finds themselves in and it’s always nice to connect—one with Rotarians and also with Canadians when you’re far from home.”
Allison says she is willing to speak to other clubs in our District during their virtual meetings.
“If any clubs want, I can talk about either my own journey and my involvement with Rotary or I’m happy to also just kind of speak about my research.”
You can email Allison to invite her for a virtual visit to your club.
Rotary International District 5370 News 