A couple of UW-Eau Claire students are getting ready for a trip to Africa. It's something the two call the chance of a lifetime. And it's one that's headed up by none other than Oprah.

Zack Ryan and Heather Witt are both education majors. They say getting the chance to teach overseas will only help them in their future classrooms.

For the past four years, they've focused on how to teach. But, now these two students say they're most excited about the chance to learn.

"I definitely would not have this opportunity in my life to go to Africa to teach in a school," Heather says.

"You can never see too many things, “ Zack adds. “If you see things from one spectrum, they can help you in another spectrum back in the United States."

Around campus, Zack and Heather are known for their roles on the Blugold basketball teams. But, coming up for the two seniors: The chance to be "O Ambassadors."

It's the program Oprah Winfrey helped start nine years ago. Teachers and students raise money and travel to impoverished places across the world. Zack and Heather will travel to Kenya.

"At Eau Claire, you get the awesome athletics, but I think people forget about how great the education program is here too,” Heather says. “I don't think Zack or I would be where we are today, or even have this opportunity, or even feel confident to be going to another country without being prepared here at Eau Claire."

"To try to take what we learned here with the education we got here, which has been phenomenal, and apply that to underprivileged areas is just something you'll never forget,” Zack says.

Zack's mom is heading up the group. She's a teacher in Stillwater, Minnesota. The group is planning on traveling to Kenya in the summer of 2010.

Right now, they're setting their fundraising goals; each person needs to come up with $5000 to cover travel, food and a donation to the Kenyan community.