On Thursday, July 18th YSEL Ethiopia
students welcomed Robert Post, the Public Affairs Officer and SemiraAlhadi,
the Educational Resource Center Manager from the US Embassy in Addis
Ababa. Both Robert and Semira were
excited to meet the students after two weeks of being at camp. Semira noted that she had seen a remarkable
change in the students since the Welcome Meeting in the Embassy on the first
day of camp. “The students really have
opened up and seem more confident,” she commented. “They really are very comfortable with each
other too. It is great to see the change
in them after such a short time.”
Semira
gave a presentation to students on educational opportunities in the US, how to
apply to colleges and different resources available to them at the US Embassy’s
Educational Resource Center. In addition
to Semira’s presentation, Meron Berhanu of the Institute of International
Education gave a presentation on a unique scholarship program offered through
New York University-Abu Dhabi. Many of
the YSEL-Ethiopia students would be good candidates for this scholarship and
here at camp we plan to give special evening sessions on filling out the
application, how to write effective essays and presenting themselves well on
paper. 
During
the presentations, Robert met with the eight Peace Corps Volunteers that make
up the YSEL-Ethiopia teaching team to hear what they had to say about
camp. All commented on what a unique
opportunity this is not only for students but for them as well. “This is a good opportunity for us to meet
students from other parts of the country we don’t get to, as well as giving us
new ideas and methods for teaching,” commented Jennifer Miller, one of the
eight teachers. Our Embassy guests stayed through lunch and joined us for our YSEL camp photo in Ethiopian flag colors.
This is
hopefully not the final visit by US Embassy staff to the YSEL camp. We look forward to seeing Robert and other
colleagues back at camp for our Closing Ceremony on August 4th!
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