Today we’d like to introduce you to Christi Gordy.
Christi, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I took my first trip to Kenya in 2003 and spent 6 months in the Nairobi slum of Kibera, where I fell in love with the Kenyan people. Later, I spent 5 years traveling the US with a choir of Kenyan children, touring the country and singing in over 100 schools and churches a year. Year after year, I would see these children transformed by their choir experience (worldview, language skills, personal confidence, hope for the future, etc.). After these tours, they would return home full of hope and confidence and, thanks to sponsorships, access to a better, private school education.
However, fast forward to a few years later when these same students were graduating from high school and it felt like they were falling off a conveyor belt. They weren’t getting into college, they weren’t finding jobs, and they didn’t know how to create a job for themselves. This was when we realized they were facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge.
While Kenya is East Africa’s largest economy, it has the fifth highest unemployment rate in the world (42%). No matter how far a student makes it in school, there are often no jobs waiting for them. Most schools in Kenya struggle to prepare students to face this challenge. The educational focus is on test performance, rote memorization and a lecture-based classroom style, so students continue to graduate without the confidence, skills, or ideas to succeed. In response to these needs, Canopy Life Academy opened its doors in January 2015.
While the idea was birthed out of my choir days and a desire to bring a safe, nurturing environment to Kenyan children, it quickly grew into a desire to empower students to become godly entrepreneurs.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Ha! So. Many. Struggles. Hundreds of people have helped us along the way, there have been challenges at every turn. I have been overwhelmed by the generosity and faithfulness of people cheering us on, supporting the vision and championing our mission. It has encouraged and empowered us to continue on in spite of our obstacles.
Many challenges are the result of attempting to do something new in a different culture: building a boarding program that offers a nurturing home environment instead of a dormitory, getting students’ parents on board with a new kind of education, training teachers to embrace new teaching strategies, navigating corruption and power plays in local leadership, and fighting for the safety of our students.
In addition, like many social entrepreneurs, I am high on passion, creativity, and ideas, but low on operational skills and details. I am so grateful for the dozens of mentors, advisors, and board members who have helped us navigate these challenges.
Among the biggest challenges for me personally has been rising above my own inner critic, doubts, and a scarcity mindset. Starting Canopy Life Academy is changing me from the inside out. I have HAD to change. There was just no room for someone without courage, faith, and tenacity. It was changed or fail.
Canopy Life Academy – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Canopy Life Academy is a boarding school in Kenya that provides the curriculum, environments, and community to develop Kenyan children into godly entrepreneurs. We see a future where Kenya’s vulnerable children become strong leaders, capable of creating jobs, businesses, and solutions for their country and beyond. Whether or not they attend college, our students are being equipped with the abilities to cultivate an idea to market, grow a healthy business, and lead others with integrity.
Right now we do this through four unique programs that develop a whole-hearted child. Our Canopy Home (boarding program) focuses on developing confidence, belonging, and identity through a safe and nurturing family experience. Deep Roots is our discipleship arts program that cultivates faith and character in students while deepening an appreciation of and exposure to the arts.
The Canopy Classroom is entirely focused on engagement and critical thinking, teaching students to ask the right questions rather than memorize the right answer. Finally, our Innovation program combines Design Thinking principles with business, leadership, and hard skills. Our goal is that our students will have a business plan in place before they graduate from high school.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Growth and progress on any level is success to me. Of course, I love it when big things happen (large donor gifts that allow for capacity growth, a new partnership, or the completion of a building), but celebrating on a micro-level is what keeps me going. On our regular video-staff meetings with Kenya, the first thing we do is share what encouraged us in the past week.
Every week, it’s always growth of some sort, like a student who acts in kindness rather than fear, a new donor jumping in to help us reach our goals, a special conversation or connection between a sponsor and their Canopy Life student, or a light bulb moment for a student in science class.
When a student connects on a deep, personal level with a US sponsor and it expands the student’s worldview, that is a big success to me. Thanks to video conference software and social media, US sponsors and Kenyan students get to know each other’s struggles and victories in real-time. I love seeing our students get excited when a sponsor graduates from college or grad school, gets married or has a baby.
In the same way, it’s awesome to see sponsors encourage our students when they face challenges like a hard class or problems at home. Recently, a student recorded a prayer for a sponsor who had lost her mom to cancer, and it was the sweetest thing ever. A true exchange of what we all have in common: love and loss. I love seeing students and sponsors learn that we are all a part of a much bigger, global family.
While we are different, we all share the human experience and can connect there. I consider it a big success when worldviews (both US and Kenyan) explode to a new level.
Pricing:
- Sponsorship is $45 a month and can change the life of a child. Info is on our website.
- $540 annual sponsorship provides the home and faith programs to a student for an entire year.
- $2500 scholarship provides the academic and innovation program for one student for a year.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.canopylife.org
- Phone: 404.509.4914
- Email: christi@canopylife.org
- Instagram: @canopylife
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/canopylife/
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