By Angelita Faller
In the summer of 2025, Homewood native Davis Bunn traveled to Serrekunda, The Gambia, to help grow 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—part of the University of Arkansas—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 Internation Public Service Project, an eight-week, individual global public service project taking place in the summer between a student’s first and second year.
Bunn’s primary objective was to help the foundation secure sustainable funding. This involved researching global funding opportunities and translating those findings into actionable tools for the organization’s staff. “Specifically, I worked with The Unique Foundation on their library projects, which provides furniture and reading materials for local schools,” Bunn says. “I spent much of my time grant writing, and I created a centralized grant application document.”
In addition to the strategic work, Bunn assisted with essential IT and infrastructure updates, to streamline the foundation’s outreach and fundraising. “I helped increase their capacity to fundraise,” Bunn continues. “The work we did should help the foundation seek out additional opportunities long after my time there.”
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 to get out of my comfort zone,” Bunn explains. “The opportunity to work in education in West Africa was something I found very interesting. Life is very different there 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 museums and nature preserves. “My supervisor and I visited a monkey park and a crocodile park, both incredible experiences,” Bunn says.
Reflecting on his time in Africa, Bunn says the experience further cemented his interest in education policy. By observing how The Gambia structures its educational systems at a micro level, he 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 says. “I appreciate the connections I made and the chance to see education policy in action on a global scale.”
Currently, Bunn is 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.
