WESLI & Leading Change Africa adds 3 Scholarship Students in Second Year

The Wisconsin ESL Institute (WESLI) is partnering with Leading Change Africa for the second year to provide English language prior to the students’ university pathways. The Carlos Osorio Scholarship for Change was given to three students this year from Burkina Faso.

The selected students from public schools wrote an essay about their future dreams and careers to be considered. Each scholar was in the top of their class upon graduating in June before coming to Madison, Wisconsin, USA about one month later.

Zara Ilboudo is a cheerful student wanting to study computer science after WESLI. “I want to be a computer scientist to improve people’s lives, especially teachers and pupils. Without having a computer, my studies in high school were difficult because there weren’t a lot of books for mathematics and chemistry to access.”

She’d like to build a computer center one day back in Burkina Faso to help students get greater access to resources that can improve their education and teachers’ curriculum.

Wilfried Tapsoba is from Ouagadougou, like the others, and wants to study in the medical field at university. Researching local diseases, like malaria, is an area of interest in his future work.

He reflected on his studies so far that “at WESLI I can talk easily with my teachers and can talk with other students to improve my English quickly. We get lots of practice in class and that’s really important.”

Wendyam Ilboudo plans to study food systems and how to bring more local produce to markets. She lives with a host family with Zara. The American host family spends time practicing English with them and taking them to soccer games, among other outings to experience the local American culture. Zara commented that “my host family helps me improve my English a lot and I can ask them questions.”

These students will matriculate to one of WESLI’s university partners, Madison College, to begin their university studies next fall.