STAR Higher Education Program

The program aims to provide higher education opportunities to exceptional students who have faced adversity, conflict, and war-related challenges and have excelled despite these obstacles.

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Brief life history of a brilliant young lady from Ethiopia.  

I was born in a small town called Ataye in the Amhara Regional State of Ethiopia. My school life began in Ataye public school, where I took classes from grade 1 to grade 11 (half-year). (Report on Ataye Atrocities - https://www.amharaamerica.org).

My education in Ataye, especially from grade 9 to 11, has been challenging and has been surrounded by unprecedented high-security risk, internal war, community displacement, all sorts of abuses, and property destruction. During this particular moment, my family and close relatives were the direct victims of the war that was raging in the area, with the immediate effect of total property destruction and forceful displacement from our permanent living place and my birthplace, Ataye, to the nearest town called Shewa Robit. When we arrived there, we had nothing in our hands, and my family, close relatives, and I were totally broke, depressed, and penniless. The lifelong investment of my family and close relatives in the form of the Abyssinia Hotel and Shaleka Hotel of my close relatives have been destroyed. The properties have been looted. 

Even in such difficult times, I was determined and sought temporary support mechanisms to continue my education immediately to attend the remaining 11th grade and the whole year in 12 grade in Shewa Robit town.  My school years in public schools have also been difficult generally, public schools, particularly Shewa Robit High Schools, critically suffer from a lack of learning materials, including lack of laboratories, reference books, and the much-required learning materials. Besides that, I learned in both elementary and high schools in both cities where school internet services and access to e-learning materials are virtually unheard of. 

Under such economic, social, and high-security risk circumstances and a challenging academic environment, I took the National 12th Leaving Certificate Examination in E, C. 2014 or GC 2022/23. When the result was officially announced, I was relieved to find out that I had scored a total of 569 marks in 7 subjects out of 700, I was among the around 28,000 students out of 930,000 students Nationwide who took the exam and got more than 50% of grade that is eligible to join university. I am also one of 219 of the 28,000 top-scoring 12th-grade students in the 2022/23 class in the Amhara Regional state and received an award of 15,000ETB from the regional State for students who scored more than 550. I thank God for his blessing and for giving me the courage and the determination to endure my difficulties and to reach where I am now. 

I want to stress that God has created us for a purpose, and I believe that everyone has the potential to contribute and excel in one or more ways. Life may be difficult, as you may have heard from my brief life history. I survived three times displacements and went from someone who had something to live on to untold destitution. Difficulties in life may be expected or unexpected. They are all in God’s hand. But, we all have to pull our strength and make a true determination to face our difficulties, overcome them bravely, and pursue our goals in life.  

I dream of excelling in education and am determined to make it come true. I love Physics and Mathematics very much. My dream is to be educated in aerospace engineering.