Rift Valley Academy

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Rift Valley Academy (RVA) is a Protestant missionary boarding school located in Kijabe, Kenya, founded in 1906 by Charles Hurlburt, under the auspices of and maintained by the Africa Inland Mission (AIM). Having met with Hurlburt in the White House in 1905, President Theodore Roosevelt visited Kijabe shortly after leaving office four years later. During this visit, Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for Kiambogo, the main school building that remains the centerpiece of RVA's campus.

Having survived the Mau Mau Rebellion of the 1950s and terrorist threats in the late 1990s, RVA has continued to grow and flourish. Today it enrolls roughly 500 students, from kindergarten up to grade twelve, and allows both American and British curricula to be followed by its students. Students hail from North America (roughly 65% of the student body), South Korea (10%), Kenya (10%), and other countries (15%). Graduates frequently attend college in their home country. Recent graduates have attended Wake Forest University, Taylor University, Calvin College, Wheaton College, Davidson College, Furman University, Brown University, the University of Virginia, Princeton University and West Point, among other institutions. An RVA graduate, Rebecca Cook, was named a Rhodes Scholar in 2004.

Most RVA students, whose parents are typically American, European or Korean missionaries working in East Africa, consider themselves third culture kids, in that their cultural identity is neither that of their parents' home country nor that of East Africa but rather is a hybrid of the two.