Educational Opportunity

The Public Affairs section trained representatives from seven Mediateca centers to be Resident Education USA Advisors in partnership with REAC South Africa, Clara Priester and with support from the Department of State’s R Fund for Innovation. The two-day training exposed participants to every aspect of study in the United States including the U.S. education system, application and testing requirements, cultural norms, scholarships, student life, and more. Participants Skyped with Angolan students at the University of Louisiana Lafayette and Southern University/A & M College (a historically black college) to learn about their experiences firsthand. Participants in the training asked sophisticated questions at every stage and they demonstrated a strong propensity for being able to facilitate others to learn how to study in the United States. This program will greatly expand the Embassy’s reach to provincial Angola.  It is just one in a six-part protocol signed by Ambassador La Lime with the Mediateca network, which are high-tech library and resource centers open to the public and serving tens of thousands of youth nationwide. Angola currently ranks ninth on the Open Doors list of sub-Saharan African countries sending students to the United States, which is impressive for a post-war Portuguese-speaking country.