The hope, says de Rossi, is that the next generation of conservationists in the country are "Rwandans rather than folks from other countries."Īccording to Felix Ndagijimana, the Fossey Fund's director of Rwanda programs "The Ellen Campus represents a huge expansion of our teaching and laboratory spaces, enabling us to not just increase but transform our programs to study gorillas and their critical forest habitat and bring educational opportunities to early career African scientists and members of the local community. The campus so far has seen about 5,000 visitors, two-fifths of those have been Rwandan students. Over 250,000 plant species are growing up in the campus landscape. The $15 million campus is located in the foothills of the Virunga Massif in Kinigi, in Musanze District. The main entrance of the newly inaugurated Ellen DeGeneres Campus. The campus, which was designed by sustainably minded architecture firm MASS Design Group, offers immersive and educational experiences, such as watching mountain gorillas on film in the 360-degree Irmelin DiCaprio Theater, "which is really very overwhelmingly beautiful," says de Rossi. She has taken Rwanda to the world, and from this campus, the world will come to Rwanda," said the RDB boss. Since this project started 4 years ago, Ellen has talked and talked about Rwanda 2000 times. Ellen has shared her platform with Rwanda from the gorilla habitants. "Thank you for bringing the world to Rwanda and to Kinigi specifically. This is how I offered to partner with Dian Fossey Fund and we put up Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund." It’s been a busy time of Helping People, Saving Gorillas on the campus, and it’s been so exciting to see how the purpose-built facility is accelerating our work. I knew the show was ending, and I wanted her to be engaged in something else she loved, plus I wanted her to remember what was important to her when she was a kid. It’s hard to believe, but our Ellen Campus has already been open for a month. Her arrival is set to heavily benefit Rwanda in the areas of tourism revenues and producing the next generation of scientists, global conservationists, zoologists and anthropologists - all coming from Rwanda to the world.ĭeGeneres delivers remarks during the official inauguration of the Ellen DeGeneres Campus of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund on June 7.Įllen's partner, Portia de Rossi learned early in their relationship, about Ellen's wish to come see the gorillas and make an impact, and "it stuck with me, because over the years Ellen has met the most amazing people on earth, really, yet the person who had the greatest impact on her was someone she never met, Dian Fossey."įor that milestone birthday in 2018, de Rossi says, "I didn't want to get her another watch. Today, DeGeneres has come to the primates to step in Fossey's footsteps.
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