College Access for Malawi, Uganda, Zambia Students

USAP cohorts of students in Malawi, Uganda and Zambia are hard at work on their college applciations, some of them applying to meet Early Decision/Early Action November deadlines.

All three cohorts recently wrote SAT exams on October 6, some of them traveling as far as 8-9 hours to get to the city where the exam center was located.  The Malawians, mostly who come from the Zomba region, had to travel to Lilongwe for their exams, the Ugandans to Kampala, the Zambians to Lusaka.

Now they are immersed in essays, online application forms, and getting letters of recommendation from their high school teachers.  All of this while writing national exams.

We thank you for your donations which have contributed to their costs in the application process. 

We are thrilled to report that we just concluded our annual USAP Application Bootcamp with cohorts from both Uganda and Zambia joining the Zimbabwe cohort.  Eight students and Coordinator Rebecca Rwakabukoza flew in from Uganda and twelve students and Coordinator Jessica Clarkson bused down from Zambia for an action-packed productive week in Zimbabwe.  The camp, held on the shores of Lake Chivero, included intensive instruction in all areas of college application process including college selection, financial aid forms, the Common Application, and most importantly writing the personal statement otherwise known as the college essay.

In addition to morning instruction in these areas, writing fellows met with the students each afternoon in small groups to help students individually choose how to show their life stories and write them within the confines of a college essay.  We also worked in small groups on community project identification and problem solving and engaged in team building activities.  After some sports and recreation, each day ended with mindfulness by the lake over sunset and the last night included a vibrant talent show. 

USAP alumni who live and work in Africa came to speak to the students and be part of the activities.  It was exciting to involve multiple countries in one bootcamp and the intercultural learning and sharing was an added bonus.   We feel our USAP cohorts are now well positioned to succeed in the application process through lots of hard work in the upcoming months.

The USAP students will be writing their SAT exams on October 6 - we thank you for your donations which enable the preparation materials for these exams and the writing of the exams themselves to be possible.