“It just felt like it was finally time for me to go experience African life, visit the homeland, and see what it’s really like,” said Dezaray Lowery, GHS Class of 2015, having recently returned from spending more than a month in Ghana and Nigeria. “After majoring in African Studies, it was important to me to be able to see the places I’d been learning about, and touch my own feet down on African soil. When I got the opportunity, I jumped on it.”
Dez described her visit to Africa as the realization of a dream that was sparked when she was still a freshman at Gateway, where she was part of the Black Student Union’s effort to organize a student trip to Africa. Ultimately, the club decided that visiting Haiti was a more manageable goal.
“At first I was a little disappointed, but really, we ended up going where we were most needed,” Dez said, as the country was still reeling from the effects of the catastrophic 2010 earthquake. “We were able to make a real impact by helping lay the foundation for a new school building. It was very rewarding, and wonderful, almost overwhelming, to go to this place where people were so welcoming and loving and caring to us, even after all they’d been through.”
Dez says her two strongest memories from the trip are the early morning cold outdoor showers, and having the opportunity to attend church with her host family.
“I couldn’t understand anything that anyone was saying at the church, but I still felt the love from that community anyway,” she said. “It really hit me how that love is universal, even though I was realizing the world was a lot bigger than I thought it was.”
That first trip to Haiti was just the start of a lifelong wanderlust for Dez, who also spent part of her sophomore year in an outdoor education leadership program that included a six week stay in Chile. As a university student, she also spent time in the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Caribbean.
“My parents didn’t get to travel much when they were younger, and didn’t even get on a plane for the first time until they were adults, so they really wanted me to be able to have those experiences,” she said.
As Dez continued her travels and her college education, her desire to make good on the trip she had planned as a high school freshman only became stronger. She was even set to study abroad for a semester in Ghana – until the COVID-19 pandemic erupted and made international travel impossible. As soon as restrictions were lifted and she had an opportunity to visit Ghana and Nigeria with relatives, she seized it.
“Americans get a bad view of Africa. Most of what we see on TV is poverty, starvation, violence … when we have all that stuff here in the USA, as well,” she said. “What we don’t see are the kind of things I got to experience: beautiful forests and gardens, people who were excited to welcome me even if we couldn’t speak the same language, and amazing food.”
Dez, who hopes to begin planning a trip somewhere off the beaten path in Europe sometime soon, credits her experiences around the world with shaping her character and how she sees herself in the world.
“It's important to see people in different situations from you, it’s humbling,” she said. “Traveling has made me a better, more considerate person, and given me a new way of looking at things when I’m planning for my future and thinking about who I want to be and surround myself with.”
Dez hopes other Gateway students, and particularly students of color, will be inspired to take adventure abroad as well.
“People need to know that they can do anything they put their mind to,” she said. “My mom told me this and I hold it deeply to my heart: never let money stop you from doing the things you want to do. When you don't have that as a reason to not follow your dream, it removes barriers. You’ll be amazed at what you can do.”