After spending time on an athletics service trip to Rwanda in January, recent 黑料网 graduate and Callie Jean Cunningham felt compelled to act.
Cunningham, who graduated in May 2024 with a bachelor鈥檚 degree in psychology, was one of about 18 Kent State student-athletes and staffers who traveled to Rwanda for athletics training camps for children and teens in the town of Boneza.
Cunningham, originally from Connellsville, Pennsylvania, was a forward on the women鈥檚 soccer team.
鈥淲hile we were there, we held a soccer camp that was originally supposed to be for 200 kids, and 500 or 600 showed up,鈥 Cunningham said. 鈥淲e only had made T-shirts for 200, and we only had two duffle bags of shoes.鈥
The students didn鈥檛 seem to mind, as many were used to playing without soccer cleats, and enjoyed learning from the Kent State athletes. But not having enough shoes to go around troubled Cunningham.
Moved to Act
鈥淚t was so heartbreaking that we didn鈥檛 have enough shoes to give them all,鈥 she said, 鈥淲hen I came back, I really wanted to do something.鈥
Being a Division 1 school, Cunningham said players on the soccer teams get new soccer spikes and athletic shoes every year.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 resell them and people don鈥檛 always use them. It鈥檚 illegal to resell them per NCAA rules, so I thought it would be a great idea to get folks to donate shoes,鈥 she said.
Serving as a senator-at-large for Athletics on during the 2024 Spring Semester, Cunningham was able to apply for Students First Funding to help cover the costs of prizes 鈥 water bottles and Beats headphones 鈥 and then organized a spike ball tournament and asked participants to consider a donation of athletic shoes or spikes for entry.
鈥淲e ended up having 21 teams sign up for the double elimination tournament. Everyone brought so many shoes it was awesome,鈥 she said. 鈥淭he soccer team helped out a lot, so we got a lot of soccer spikes, and the football players donated their football spikes, too.鈥
Dozens of Shoes
A women鈥檚 softball team member who had gone on the Rwanda trip brought in 15 new pair of Converse shoes because her parents had a contact in the company who was happy to donate.
鈥淧eople brought bags of shoes, not just one pair. It was beautiful. I had no expectations, and I was scared that no one was going to bring shoes and the way that Kent State came together was amazing,鈥 she said.
Cunningham鈥檚 mother, who teaches third grade, also reached out to the parents of her students asking if any of them had any gently worn athletics shoes they wanted to donate.
Cunningham collected 123 pairs of shoes, from small children鈥檚 shoes to men鈥檚 size 12.
Help from a Friend
Once the shoes were collected, though, Cunningham faced the issue of getting the shoes to Rwanda.
That鈥檚 where in Akron, Ohio, came to the rescue.
Rybka travels to Rwanda frequently and serves on the board of the non-profit organization, which helped to stage the athletics camps. Arise Rwanda is working to transform the community, lifting residents from extreme poverty through education, clean water sources, healthcare, economic development and pastoral care.
鈥淟arry is a huge advocate for mission trips and provided immense support for our student-athlete trip to Rwanda last January,鈥 said Maggie McKendry, associate athletic director for athletic philanthropy and senior director of philanthropy for Kent State.
Cunningham reached out to Rybka for help, and he came to her aid.
鈥淟arry said, 鈥榊ou get me the shoes and I鈥檒l make sure that I get them over there,鈥欌 Cunningham said.
Rybka said the Arise Rwanda鈥檚 American board members travel to the country often, and bring back fair-trade goods created by women in Boneza, which are sold by students and volunteers from Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy through a non-profit store Shya Designs.
Board members always travel with eight large duffle bags filled with soccer balls or other equipment for the school children of Boneza, and then those same bags are used on the return trip to bring back the artisan goods sold at Shya. On a recent trip to Rwanda, those duffle bags were filled with the shoes collected by Cunningham, Rybka said.
Joining the Kent State Family
Rybka said 鈥減rovidence鈥 was at work, bringing him and Kent State together. Active as a volunteer in Rwanda for more than 10 years, Rybka said a friend showed him an article detailing how Kent State was expanding its education-abroad programs into Rwanda, and he contacted Marcello Fantoni, Kent State鈥檚 vice president for global education, to get acquainted. Fantoni later connected Rybka with Kent State Athletics, which was planning a service trip for student-athletes.
鈥淲e put a plan together and it鈥檚 amazing how it all just happened,鈥 Rybka said.
While not a Kent State alumni, Rybka is a new member of the Golden Flashes family through his daughter, , who recently was hired as head coach for Kent State鈥檚 cross-country teams, and to help train mid-distance/distance track and field student-athletes.
Rybka said helping to support the trip financially was a small investment, for the huge reward of seeing how the students benefitted from the trip.
鈥淭o the person, all of them have said this was the most consequential trip they had ever taken, and they learned so much from the people of Rwanda,鈥 Rybka said. 鈥淚t impacted everybody who went in a profound way.鈥
Rybka said he is interested in working with Kent State in the future, possibly helping to sponsor a trip with students from the Ambassador Crawford College of Business and Entrepreneurship.
鈥淵ou know, the most compelling part is that you think we鈥檙e going there to help these people in Rwanda, these poor people, and you discover they are rich in so many ways and have so much to teach us,鈥 Rybka said.
鈥楾rip of a Lifetime鈥
Cunningham said the trip was a highlight of her years at Kent State.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to sound clich茅, but it was life-changing. It really was,鈥 she said.
Since graduating in May, Cunningham enrolled at Western Michigan University after entering the transfer portal, where she will continue to play women鈥檚 soccer while she applies to graduate schools, hoping to get accepted into a physician鈥檚 assistant program.
Once she earns her advanced degree, Cunningham said she would love to return to Boneza, where they are building the town鈥檚 first hospital, to work for a few years. The student athletes were able to tour the hospital site during their trip.
鈥淭hey had to walk hours to the nearest hospital if they needed medical care,鈥 Cunningham said, 鈥淭he new hospital is going to be beautiful. As soon as we toured it, I was like, 鈥業 want to come back. That鈥檚 what I want to do for a few years.鈥欌
Learn more about Kent State's Rwanda programs here: