Jam's Academy

Jam's Academy is delighted to collaborate with Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia! Read more about their exciting correspondence project.

"As an art teacher at Collegiate School in Richmond, Virginia, and as the mother of Peace Corps volunteer, Kalene Resler, I was privileged to engage in a year-long connection between my second grade students and students at Jams’ Academy in Bertoua, Cameroon. Through a vibrant exchange of emailed questions and answers, scanned photos and drawings, and stories and photo gathered from Kalene on my mid-year visit to Cameroon, the children learned much about the others’ families, past times, education, food geography, and culture. My students were amazed that their counterparts carried water and food in containers perched on their heads, but delighted finding some culinary commonalities: “I eat cous cous too!” They were astounded that the school buildings lacked electricity, but very jealous that Cameroonian students got to ride motorcycles to school and back.. they couldn’t imagine learning three languages at once and without books to take home, but wondered if this might cut down on homework.

From my visit to Jams’ Academy and from what I’d learned from Kalene and Moses Jams, I hoped that establishing a library of textbooks could help with education with consistency and continuity. Necessary breaks from school- for holidays or due to family needs- could help teachers know where to leave off and puck up instruction. Workbooks, especially those that corresponded to material in textbooks, could help asses individual learned. Teachers could rely more on checking written responses than on listening to group verbal replies. Learning by rote has value but it’s easy for an individual student to slip through the cracks and “mouth” the answers, without really knowing or understanding the content. Workbooks might help catch and correct this. Hopefully, the books would be as much as a help for teachers as for students!

Having said that, I loved hearing the children respond in unison to the teacher’s and teacher’s helper-student’s lead in singing and reciting vocabulary words. Those are the areas one must have a verbal response, and Jams’ Academy students give a hearty and enthusiastic singing/shouting. Heads, shoulders, knees and toes is a classic!

The Jams’ Academy report card ceremony was a highlight of our trip to Cameroon. The sight of all those pink and blue clad students, surrounded by their colorfully dressed families drove from the fact that education is valued and supported in this community. When both adults and children engage in a ceremony, with speeches and presentations, they show that they hold education, and especially this early school, in high esteem.
I was so fortunate to have visited Jams’ Academy in December 2013, and look forward to continuing our connection in the years to come."

Holly Smith

Want to learn more about the school? This short biography written by Founder and Director Moses Jam illustrates the school's modest beginnings.

"Jam’s Academy started in 2012-2013. Seeing how children left Mandjou and were to school in Bertoua made me to feel for them and their parents. I knew that bringing a school nearer the few could motivate the others to go to school. Having noticed that English language is like a hot cake in the 21st century and that Cameroon is a bilingual country, I saw a need to go in for a bilingual system of Education. The first year 2012-2013 was timid. I had 17 pupils and one teacher. Having run a school before, I was not discourage with the intake. I saw a silver lining in the horizon (hope). In 2013-2014, the silver lining I saw the previous year showed its bright face. For 17 to 150 became interested in the school thanks to Mme. Kalene Resler, a Peace Corps volunteer who helped in advertising the school to the local population. We never ended the year with this number because among the pupils were refugees who could not pay the tuition of 25,000 per year. Despite some effort to get sponsors for the refugees, it didn’t go well and they dropped. Through Kalene Resler, the school benefited from the visit of so many Peace Corps volunteers and most especially from Collegiate School in the USA. The school through Mme. Holly Smith, who happened to have visited the school and learned of some of the needs of the pupils, was offered textbooks worth 1 ¼ million CFA (~$2500) for the following academic years."