AFGHAN FEMALE STUDENT OUTREACH - AFSO Students Crossing the Bridge

International Education Week precedes Thanksgiving and Giving Tuesday

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Classes & Professors

ACADEMIC READING AND RESEARCH

The professors at Afghan Female Student Outreach have been teaching in top-tier colleges and universities and are volunteering their time and experience to offer non-credit seminars at the university level in Language Arts, Social Sciences, and STEM disciplines. These online offerings are aimed at Afghan women who have completed high school and have intermediate to advanced English language ability.

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

Synchronous classes are also available in academic English for university students with some English language ability.

Meet Some of Our Volunteer Professors

AFSO Students Crossing the Bridge

End-of-year giving assures AFO's impact

October 28, 2024

Dear friends,

Sometimes I sit down to write this newsletter and I am overwhelmed. Overwhelmed by how much has happened since I last wrote. Overwhelmed by the amount of love and gratitude that pours our way from our students. Overwhelmed by the latest trauma one of them has faced, and her resilience. Overwhelmed by the generosity of our volunteers and donors.

But I don't want to invade your In boxes too often or for too long, so I'll pick out just a few October moments.

First, we've won a prize—again. The Greater Sum Foundation has named AFSO the winner of its face-to-face Pitch Competition, meaning that we have received a small grant from them as well as assistance in building a Giving Tuesday campaign for which they offer a 1-to-1 match of $5,000. More information will follow soon, but please remember that you can always donate to help us keep the data and the classes flowing. At the moment, we must limit our student body to 500 because of the cost of data. We have close to 3000 students on the wait list, and choosing among them is our next great challenge.

Second, ten of our students holding Bachelor of Laws degrees were invited to apply to a special scholarship offered by the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to earn a fully paid Master of Laws at Universitas Islam in Indonesia. Of these, four have received Zoom interviews thus far, and one has passed to the final stage. This could not have happened without the assistance of generous volunteer and supporter Elizabeth Renuart. It really takes a team, as we also learned this month when a scholarship opened for both undergraduate and graduate students at the University of New Haven, and 35 of our students applied within a week. Fortunately, our new faculty advising system kicked in to assist students in preparing personal statements and navigating the U.S. college application system. These opportunities often come our way with very short deadlines, but we are seeing success particularly among students who have prepared for the process through our English Language Test Preparation and Colloquium classes.

Finally, with the approval of our Board, we are taking the plunge and hiring an Academic Administrator. Even though it makes complete sense to have a second full-time administrative employee at a nonprofit with 500 students, 80 faculty members, and 50 teaching assistants, budget-wise this is a leap for AFSO. We are counting on the increased time available for me and our Executive Director, Amran Fatih, to work on building investment in the impact that AFSO is having. We're feeling very energized and positive with the events of this month, and your help in making this position sustainable will prove invaluable to the mission of creating futures for our astounding students.

With thanks for all you do,

Lucy