We are excited to report that we are now starting Week 7 of classes at the USAP Community School! Our carefully selected inaugural class of 25 girls and 20 boys have settled into a routine of study and focus, hard work tempered of course with some joy and fun. We are impressed with the dedication and motivation of our students as well as to the centralilty of our Honor Code and core values to the school culture.
Students are taking three A level science classes - everyone doing Mathematics and Chemistry with a split for the third A level between Biology and Physics. Students also take four courses in our own curriculum - Humanities, Research Methodologies, Reasoning and Computer Studies. We are proud of a top faculty, most who are Zimbabweans who studied abroad in the United States and Canada and have returned to Zimbabwe.
We are based about an hour from Harare in Goromonzi rural areas, where we are leasing a conference centre as our campus, and bussing our students to use the labs offered us by a private school in Harare on Saturdays. We are working through the bureaucracy of buying 100 ha of land near Marondera, where we will be building our permanent campus through your support during this year. Our wish is to move to the permanent campus in time for January 2021 start of Year Two of the school.
Outside of academics, we have a full extracurricular program under way, offering three sports - cross country, soccer and archery and six clubs - debate, chess, Model United Nations, media club, accapella and First Aid. Faculty and students alike, everyone is coming together to contribute to the necessary work of the school - from washing dishes to tending our school garden to sweeping the classrooms and passages.
We thank you, our supporters, for making this dream a reality and transforming the lives of these amazing young people by offering them a truly engaging education, the key to their future and that of their families and communities. We hope you will continue to support us as we work toward our goal of building our own campus and futher developing our school
Warmly,
As we usher in a new decade, we are just one week away from welcoming our first class to the USAP Community School! Our teachers arrive to start orientation tomorrow, Jan 10, and our 46 students, 26 girls and 20 boys from all 10 of Zimbabwe's Provinces will arrive next Friday, January 17.
Although we have been working flat out day in and day out (and some nights too), we are all very excited to see our unique school taking place. While we build our permanent complete school, we will be operating from a beautiful conference center we have leased for the year in the Goromonzi area of Zimbabwe, just under one hour's drive from Harare.
We will continue to update with here on on our social media channels listed below with all of the excitement ahead! Thank you for your support to make this dream of transformative education for high-achieving, low-income students in Zimbabwe come true!
Facebook - Education Matters Africa
Twitter - @edmattersafrica
Instagram - edmatters_africa
After an intensive two month long selection process, we are excited to announce that we have selected the inaugural class of the USAP Community School. The 46 students are 26 girls and 20 boys and come from all ten Provinces of Zimbabwe as well as the DRC via Tongogara Refugee Camp.
Selection began with over 450 written applications which included essays, short answer questions, letters of recommendations and grade reports. Our 14 person selection committee comprised of USAP alum volunteers read all applications in pairs and helped us to pare down the group to 117 finalists.
Two of us then traveled the country for 10 intense days of individual interviews and Math and Chemistry placement exams and after some agonizing decisions, selected our final 46. We are incredibly excited to open our school with this tremendous group of young people, who embody the USAP criteria of academic excellence, demonstrated leadership potential, ethos of giving and economic disadvantage.
After a much needed holiday break, we will open school next month and keep you updated on the progress. Thank you very much for your continued support as we aim to transform the lives of these remarkable young people, their families and communities with the vision of building society here in Zimbabwe.
2019 has been a very challenging year in Zimbabwe, and the USAP Community School opening is a bright ilght of hope we have all needed.
The applications for our inaugural class at the USAP Community School are in! Coming in from all 10 Provinces of Zimbabwe, from top Form 4 students in rural, government, high-density, refugee camp and mission schools from all corners, they arrived to drop off points in Bulawayo, Gweru, Mutare, and Harare and through priests and parishes, from school trucks and by scanned by Whats app and email.
A team of recent USAP alum have sorted and databased the over 400 applications for the 45 spaces in our school and now the selection process begins. A selection committee drawn from USAP alum from over the years and Education Matters staff will read through the applications, which include essays, short answer questions, academic results and letters of recommendation. We will choose about 100 finalists which will go into the pool for in-person interviews.
We are incredibly excited to select our pioneer class! Thank you again for your support that makes this transformative school, hope when set against the background of the current crisis in Zimbabwe, possible.
We are excited to announce that as January 2020 approaches, the USAP Community School applications are now open! Applications are due on October 21, after which we will begin the intensive review process. We will then travel the country to interview finalists until we have selected our first cohort by the end of November.
If you know of talented economically-disadvantaged students who are currently in Form Four, please encourage them to apply using this link. We are recruiting students from all over Zimbabwe who are writing their O levels this year and who meet all four of the USAP criteria:
We have added the link to the application in case you want to check it out.
Thank you for your continued support in helping us to raise the funds to build the USAP Community School!
Links:
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