During her fellowship in Ethiopia, Rebekah Gordon helped organize a visit to a local university by high school girls. Along with a volunteer at Haramaya University, Gordon coordinated with the campus gender office to provide a tour of the university’s resources to thirty high school girls from the neighboring town of Awaday.
“Awaday is known as the ‘chat capitol’ of Ethiopia; this predominantly Muslim town provides females with little opportunity other than selling the addictive stimulant [known as ‘chat’],” Gordon said. This tour offered the girls a glimpse of what it would be like to attend a university instead.
The high school students and three of their teachers toured the university’s radio station, dormitories, library, resource center, and classrooms. The girls were encouraged to continue their studies so that they could attend college in the future. The campus gender office hopes to continue the project next year as well.