Rounding Out 2023 with AFSO
December 8, 2023
Dear friends of AFSO,
The semester is winding down, and I'd like to begin this newsletter with a few quotes from our students' course evaluations, which are still coming in:
- Just want to say thank you so much for all these opportunities, it means a lot to me. I hope we would be still in touch and I'm so excited and looking forward to hear from you about spring semester's courses.
- It is hard to express how much you helped us.
- I really appreciate each and every person who take the efforts for Afghan women and girls. From all the professors who spend their time at our disposal so that we can learn. And we know that you make every effort to educate us. And we will not disappoint you with our efforts.
- I am really grateful to AFSO for their services and I hope that the activity will always be sustainable.
- Thanks a lot for your kindness. You are positive people in the world who have positive effects on our life.
- Honestly I'm personally thankful for AFSO group cause helping Afghan girls, I'm literally waiting the AFSO group to keep doing their helping for us specially Donations.
- I want other girls of my country to experience what I experienced with AFSO.
- AFSO made the environment through which we are engaged with education and learning! So absolutely its the best experience, especially writing and conversation class.
- I think the most important experience that I've had, in this semester was constancy, the constancy of the AFSO group for helping us Afghan girls.
For spring, we now have a whopping total of 20 classes on offer, some of them co-taught, with professors from a dozen different universities in Europe, the Middle East, Canada, and the U.S. Applications are still pouring in; it is safe to say that we may double the number of students we have been teaching this fall. So we are all trying to prepare for big changes ahead.
Who knows how long this will last? There are rumors that the Taliban may reopen some schools for girls, but no word yet on universities. Our student body will inevitably change, as there will be fewer students who were shut out in the midst of university studies, and more students who have prepared for the university via online or underground schools. Our best policy is to remain flexible and attentive to the needs of our students.
On the AFSO Board of Directors, we bid a grateful farewell to Shame Ewegen and Janet Bauer, who have done so much to get AFSO off the ground, and a warm welcome to Judy Lewis, professor emerita of Public Health at the University of Connecticut; Bobbie Smolow, chief librarian emerita at Sarah Lawrence College; and Rahman Azari of the Department of Architecture & Urban Planning at Pennsylvania State University. Each one of these distinguished individuals brings different gifts to the Board along with a vision for the future of AFSO.
Wrapping up the fall semester, the Colloquium—AFSO's honors seminar—visited with representatives of seven colleges and universities, on three continents, with special admissions programs for Afghan women, as well as with a representative of the Educational Testing Service, who helped explain the different language tests and offered the class a free preparation course as well as deep discounts of TOEFL materials. Those students are now preparing their applications and personal statements, as well as a checklist of steps to take in order to embark on their educational journey outside Afghanistan.
Board President Lucy Ferriss is currently in Paris and London on family business but also meeting with a group in Paris devoted to the empowerment of Afghan women; and with University College London and the Aga Khan Foundation.
Please keep AFSO in mind as you make your end-of-year gifts. Wishing everyone peaceful and happy holidays,
Afghan Female Student Outreach