In the summer of 2025, Davis Bunn traveled to Serrekunda, The Gambia, to help expand funding opportunities for a nonprofit that is expanding reading access to children in The Gambia, Africa.
Serving as a Research Assistant with The Unique Foundation, Bunn spent two months on the ground developing expansion strategies for the organization’s mobile and classroom library programs.
The Unique Foundation focuses on increasing educational access for vulnerable youth, women, and underserved communities. Bunn’s work was centered on ensuring these programs had the structural support needed to grow.
While the Clinton School of Public Service has long maintained a remote partnership with the West African education charity, Bunn’s arrival marked a milestone as he was the first Clinton School student to serve the organization in person during his International Public Service Project, an eight-week, individual global public service project taking place in the summer between a student’s first and second year.
Strategic Growth and Grant Development
Bunn’s primary objective was to build the foundation’s capacity to secure sustainable funding. He conducted a comprehensive needs assessment to identify target communities for the next phase of the Mobile Library and Classroom Library programs. This involved researching global funding opportunities and translating those findings into actionable tools for the organization’s staff.
“Specifically, I was working with The Unique Foundation on their library projects, which provides furniture and reading materials for local schools,” Bunn said. “I spent much of my time grant writing, and I created a centralized grant application document. This serves as a primary reference that coalizes all their institutional information in one place for future applications.”
In addition to the strategic work, Bunn assisted with essential IT and infrastructure updates, cleaning up digital registries to streamline the foundation’s outreach and fundraising.
“I think the main thing I did was increase their capacity to fundraise,” Bunn said. “The consolidated funding document will help them seek out additional opportunities long after my time there.”
Intercultural Communication in the Field
A native of Homewood, Alabama, Bunn chose The Gambia specifically to challenge himself. Having minored in intelligence studies as an undergraduate, he was interested in the region’s status as home to some of the world’s youngest democracies.
“I wanted my IPSP to be somewhere out of my comfort zone,” Bunn explained. “The opportunity to work in education in West Africa was something I found very interesting. I expanded my skills in intercultural communication. Life is very different in West Africa compared to the United States, and this project was a wonderful opportunity to meet and work with people from different walks of life.”
The experience wasn’t limited to the office. Bunn immersed himself in the local environment, visiting cultural museums and nature preserves.
“My supervisor and I visited a monkey park and hung out with a bunch of monkeys. That is the thing I remember most,” Bunn recalled. “I also went to a crocodile park, which was an incredible experience.”
A Career Foundation in Education Policy
Reflecting on the project, Bunn notes that the experience further cemented his interest in education policy. By observing how The Gambia structures its educational systems at a micro level, he has gained a global perspective he plans to apply to his career after completing his Master of Public Service degree in May.
“Seeing how The Gambia approaches education helped me juxtapose those methods with our own,” Bunn said. “I appreciate the connections I made and the chance to see education policy in action on a global scale.”
Currently, Bunn is applying his field research skills to his Capstone project, working with the Arkansas Public School Resource Center to identify best practices for charter school development. Following his graduation in May, Bunn will be getting married and moving to Washington, D.C., to pursue a career in education advocacy and policy.