November newsletter
November 1, 2023
Dear friends of AFSO,
Much has happened since we began teaching this fall. In addition to working with our students in subjects ranging from public health to personal essay, we have streamlined our provision of data packages to all our students and are finding valuable connections for students who are on the brink of being able to apply to institutions outside Afghanistan in order to continue their educational journey.
In early October, our board president, Lucy Ferriss, traveled to Montreal to meet with a dozen organizations at the symposium "Her Right to Learn," sponsored by Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan. In addition to recruiting new professors for AFSO, she was able to initiate partnerships with Canadian Women for Women, which can supply us with access to a learning management system; with Graduate Women International, an organization devoted to empowering girls through education; and with Darakht-e-Danesh, an online library and curriculum created specifically for Afghan students.
Later in the month, both Lucy and Executive Director Amran Fatih met in Washington, DC, with the Alliance for the Education of Afghan Women, of which we are now members. Founded by a partnership between the American University of Afghanistan and Arizona State University's Education for Humanity project, the Alliance will help AFSO and other organizations share resources and collaborate in a number of mutually beneficial ways. As AUAF President Ian Bickford said at the meeting, these partnerships comprise a new concept of what a university can be—flexible, dynamic, global, and serving the needs of students whose courage in the face of oppression keeps us all going.
We are currently assessing 200 applications for admission to AFSO's seminars in Spring 2024, adding to the 100 students currently enrolled. Fortunately, we have a growing faculty, with 18 professors from 11 universities teaching a full range of seminars in the liberal arts and sciences as well as English language classes including a TOEFL preparation course. Provision of data packages will rise as an item in our budget, so we hope many of you will let friends and family know that $100 supplies enough data for one of these intellectually curious, brave young women to attend our classes; $1000 supplies enough for 10 students!
Another important development has been the possibility of AFSO students' taking classes for university credit at the Open Society University Network. Beginning Spring 2024, students whose English is advanced enough to take regular university classes in English will be allowed to register for these courses on our recommendation, with credit applicable to several universities including Bard College. AFSO professors would also be eligible to apply to OSUN to teach full semester courses for which our students would likewise be able to register through the OSUN portal. While AFSO itself would continue to admit only women, and AFSO non-credit classes would be female only, these OSUN credit-bearing courses include both women and men from not only Afghanistan but countries and cultures around the world. Because a successful exodus from Afghanistan to attend an English-speaking university on scholarship can mean years of preparation for our students, being able to garner university credit along the way, especially credit applicable to so many campuses, is a great boon for our students.
With thanks for all you are doing to support AFSO's mission,
Lucy