Saturday, October 23, 2010

Travel Abroad Opportunity for American Students in Ethiopia

Planning is underway at the Ethiopian Global Initiative, an international organization of students and young professionals, for a new project that aims to send college students from the United States to Ethiopia. The project, U.S. College Students for Ethiopia, plans to provide volunteer and intern opportunities for American college students. Initially, it will be a summer opportunity but in the coming years the Ethiopian Global Initiative intends on providing semester and full year travel opportunities to Ethiopia.

Working with the leading public and private sector organizations in Ethiopia, U.S. College Students for Ethiopia will give American college students the unique opportunity of gaining practical experience in their academic field of interest while in Ethiopia. Students majoring in English Literature might volunteer to teach English at a rural primary school while those majoring in Economics might want to intern at an agency like the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, headquartered in Addis Ababa.

The Initiative’s management is busy assembling the Project Steering Committee for U.S. College Students for Ethiopia. The Committee, led by a Project Manager, will be responsible for the management, planning and implementation of the project. In the coming weeks the Project Steering Committee will be finalizing agreements with partner and receiving organizations in the United States and Ethiopia. A group of about 10-15 American college students will be selected in the spring to travel to Ethiopia in 2011 as a pilot project test for the Initiative.

Get Involved!
You can join the Project Steering Committee if you want to be involved in managing and overseeing an important international project by emailing the EGI Department of Internal Affairs at internalaffairs@ethgi.org. Getting involved in the Project Steering Committee is an important way for students and young professionals to build their experience in regards to project planning and management, teamwork and communication skills.

The project is also looking for 10-15 students to participate in the pilot project test for the summer of 2011. A formal application process does exist and further information will go out in the spring but students interested should indicate their interest by emailing the EGI Department of Operations at operations@ethgi.org.

For further questions you may email info@ethgi.org.

2 comments:

  1. This initiative will have a very positive impact to expand upon the efforts of African Study Programs nationwide. There will also be many lessons learned and resources organized to educate Study Abroad, Language and Cultural Studies Programs on the opportunities available in Ethiopia. Great work EGI.

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  2. It is very hard to find colleges in the United States that have strong African travel/study abroad programs. I agree, the lessons to be learned are significant and EGI are only scraping on the surface with this article. It is great to know that there will be an entire community of U.S. College Students for Ethiopia alumni who will have a renewed global perspective after this trip.

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