More AFSO Voices
Dear Friends,
Starting next month, this newsletter will be edited by one of our Board members and will contain not just my words but the thoughts and feelings of individuals from all parts of the AFSO community—students, teachers, course assistants, donors, other volunteers. The newsletter will come to you from a new address and be called AFSO Voices. Please watch for it . . . and consider contributing to it. If you are receiving this newsletter, you are also part of the AFSO family, and your thoughts are important to all of us.
To get us started, we have these testimonies, from Xavier Prudent and Elizabeth Renuart. A physicist and engineer, Xavier holds a PhD from Stanford University, where he worked on the BaBar experiment. He serves as Director of Technology at Civilia, enhancing public transportation infrastructure in Canada, and since Spring 2024, he has been teaching Introduction to Research Techniques and Applied Statistics with AFSO. His course is wildly popular, mostly because he is so responsive to the students, regardless of their English level or experience in the field. Here is what he has to report:
When it comes to my work with AFSO, I am strongly driven by this sentence.
The key competence to teach in AFSO is flexibility. This is a long run with many constraints, some highly unexpected.
Lack of internet connection, familial duties, lack of privacy, high mental stress, power cuts, language barrier, school levels -- these are common constraints. I once gave a full lecture just by texting through WhatsApp and sending screenshots of the slides.
But the students are there, THEY are flexible, and they help each other. I am always worried about the weakest ones, the ones who don't have the will not to give up. I encourage them to write me personally if they need help.
I especially emphasize I will never be mad at them or make fun of them if they make a mistake or ask a question. This seems to be particularly precious to them. I assume the teachers they have known were less empathic. My goal is that as few as possible give up, and keep learning, so that the day the opportunity arises, they will be there to seize it.
We also have these thoughts from Elizabeth, a retired lawyer who is not only a generous donor to AFSO but also an adviser to students who is helping us pivot from U.S.-based degree opportunities to those in the U.K., Europe, and elsewhere. It was Elizabeth's patience and resourcefulness that helped two law students from AFSO obtain full scholarships to complete their Master of Laws degrees at Universitas Islam in Indonesia. Here's what Elizabeth says:
AFSO provides a lifeline for young Afghan women who yearn to continue their education but are now forbidden to do so by the current government.
These young women grew up after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 and experienced open, available, and continuing educational opportunities their whole lives…until August of 2021 when that freedom and others abruptly ended. As an AFSO volunteer, I have the privilege of advising several students who tell me of the pain and depression they feel about their current situation. At the same time, they describe how much the AFSO classes and opportunities for further education gives them hope for a better future and the will to persist in this quest. AFSO is powered by many volunteers from all over the world, working together with AFSO students to help create a better global future for us all.
We are starting the summer session in three weeks, with 800 students and 30 classes. Students are also taking classes again with OSUN and preparing for college applications in the Colloquium and for TOEFL testing in the English Language Test Preparation class. With new threats weekly to international students in the U.S., we are vigorously pursuing other degree options for our students, including those who have been stranded by the loss of USAID funding. Your donations are their lifeline. Please watch the next newsletter for an announcement of our Second Anniversary Celebration and the launch of academic certificates.
Must-reads this month:
With deep appreciation for your continued support,
Member spotlight: Afghan Female Student Outreach