Monique Schmidt grew up in South Dakota and earned a B.A. in French and Communications from Augustana College in Sioux Falls. She spent her junior year at the University of Grenoble in France. After graduating with honors from Augustana, she worked for the American Institute of Foreign Studies in Paris and then served two years in the Peace Corps in Benin, West Africa.

After her Peace Corps service, she returned to the U.S. and earned a MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University. Monique has taught poetry in upstate New York prisons, in colleges and universities in the US and abroad. In 2007-2008 Monique went back to Africa as a Fulbright Fellow to teach at the University of Lome in Togo and conduct women’s empowerment workshops in high schools. From 2009 - 2011 Monique was the Program and Academic Director at Aikalah Institute for Women in Rwanda, Africa. She currently is teaching and designing curricula in a school in remote Rwanda for the nonprofit One Acre Fund.

2012 is Monique’s fifth summer as a VISIONS leader. She previously led programs in Guadeloupe for three seasons and two programs on Montana’s Blackfeet Indian Reservation.

Monique’s book about her Peace Corps experience in Africa, Last Moon Dancing, was published in 2005. Augustana College awarded her the Horizon Award, and in 2011 invited her to return to her alma mater for the Thought Leader Forum to speak about her experiences in Rwanda. For the past three years Monique has lived in Rwanda, working on women’s empowerment through education. She looks forward to returning to Guadeloupe this summer and the strong friendships she forged with Les Saintois in Petite Anse.