20
Four County Catholic April 2011
Diocese of Norwich Outreach to Haiti Scholarship Leads to Virginia Tech
A Lending Hand Opens Doors to His Education Education has taken Ezechiel Prampin to places he never dreamed of seeing, at least not when he was a By Kyn Tolson Development Director, Outreach to Haiti
sixth-grader and accepted into a scholarship program run by Outreach to Haiti. That was years ago. Today, the 26year-old is in his final semester of undergraduate studies in industrial
ship program has enabled him to go to school for the last 10 years. The Outreach program provides full tuition payments for Ezechiel and 300 other impoverished children, teenagers and young adults. The students range from first-graders to medical school students, and all live in the capital city. Following the January 2010 earthquake, some received medical care provided by Outreach. Also, many families of
engineering. He is spending that semester at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va., after being one of two selected from his engineering classes at Quisqueya University in Port-auPrince. Although selection for this special program is testament to his capabilities and high achievement, Ezechiel likely would not be where he is today were it not for the Diocese of Norwich Outreach to Haiti. Its scholar-
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other students were given relief funds to help them address their extraordinary needs in the wake of the disaster. All of the students in the scholarship program have been accepted based on their economic need. Their families do not have the money to pay tuitions to private schools, which provide most of the education in Haiti, because the public system is inadequate. (Public education provides for only about 6 percent of those going to school. The rest turn to private institutions. Overall, only about 60 percent of school-age children are getting an education.) To remain in the Outreach program, students must show academic merit; they need to maintain aboveaverage grades. Ezechiel has done well, despite odds against him. His father died several years ago. His mother made money for the family of seven by selling goods on the street. Ezechiel is the youngest among his brothers and sisters. He has worked hard in school, realizing even as a boy that a good education might be the best way to lift himself out of extreme poverty. Now in Virginia, Ezechiel said in a telephone interview that his studies are focusing on a research project about the uses of bamboo in commercial and residential construction. His enthusiasm for the project and the potential for better ways to re-
build his country have grown in recent weeks, he said. Along with doing research, Ezechiel takes daily, intensive classes in English. (Even before heading to Virginia, he showed language proficiency, because his selection interview in Haiti was conducted in English.) By mid-May, all of his university work should be completed. He expects to return to Port-au-Prince for graduation with his class there. He is eager for that landmark event in his life, and he wants to share his expertise in Haiti’s reconstruction efforts. He hopes, he said, that he has lived up to his mother’s words of encouragement: “Work hard. You will succeed.” The Outreach scholarship program is itself a success story. More than 90 percent of those accepted remain in the program at least through secondary school graduation. All who pass the national examinations are encouraged to go onto higher education. Outreach to Haiti would like to help more students succeed. We welcome donors willing to sponsor them. Ezechiel Prampin has shown where this kind of help can lead. It has made all the difference in his life. To learn more about sponsoring a student for the upcoming academic year, please contact us at: 860.848.2237 ext. 206. Or e-mail: info@outreachtohaiti.org.
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