Access Micro-Scholarship Program has been officially launched

Cultural attaché to the United States Embassy in Ethiopia Lo Li Ping visited Haramaya University and its English Language Improvement Centre (ELIC) on Saturday 3^rd March 2018 for the official launch of the Access Micro scholarship Fund.

The Access Micro scholarship Fund provides local school students with the opportunity to attend weekend English language classes taught by professional teachers from Haramaya University. These classes provide high-quality teaching to those students from the areas in and around Harar and Haramaya who are high-achievers at their respective schools but come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

The program is funded for two years by the US embassy with the aim of promoting the students’ English language skills and providing them with the opportunity to learn more about American culture. Indeed, the program goes beyond the classroom walls and extends to educational field trips which promote the student’s learning and ensure they gain better social skills. There is even the opportunity for the micro scholarship recipients to enter competitions to go on educational trips to the USA.

The Access program, which includes 50 students from Haramaya and 25 from Harar, is run locally by Melkamu Alemu, ELIC coordinator, who organized Saturday’s launch event. The event was attended by special guests Li Ping, U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Officer, and Wondimalem Geneti, U.S. Embassy Cultural Affairs Assistant, as well as HU Vice-President for Academic Affairs Professor Negussie Dechassa and Dean of the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences Dr. Dawit Negassa. The Access students and their parents were all invited to the event where they received special certificates marking their receipt of the micro scholarship.

In her speech officially launching the program Lo Li Ping discussed the extraordinary advantages that the students will receive through their micro scholarship and claimed that the students will hardly believe the changes to their language, social, and public-speaking skills that they will have gained by the end of the two-year program. Following her words were the speeches of two gifted students enrolled in the program, Abel Selam agenge and Mihiret Fekadu, who impressed their friends and family with their eloquent words of gratitude for the program’s launch.