Abstract

In an interdisciplinary / interdepartmental collaboration between three professors and one student concentrating in Technical Writing at Christopher Newport University, technical writing was used to bring needed funds to the Maasai American Organization, a small nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to promoting education and improving health for Maasai women living within the Siana and Megwarra villages in Kenya. Professor Lea Pellett, Professor Emeritus of Sociology and co-founder of the Maasai American Organization; Professor Mary Wright, Assistant Professor of English and instructor of Web writing; and Professor Jean S. Filetti, Associate Professor of English and instructor of grant writing, worked collaboratively with one student to build a Web site for the Maasai American Organization and write a grant (submitted to Coca-Cola International) to provide funding for educational opportunities for young girls who would otherwise face early female circumcision, an arranged marriage (generally in early adolescence, by age 13), and a life of poverty in the enkangs. In addition to exposing the student to real-world writing and the requirements of web-based writing and proposal writing, this collaborative project argues strongly for the humanistic value of technical writing and for developing service-learning initiatives that encourage effective participation of students in the global community.