God is Able: Help Us Extend Academy Education Across Borders
This is a very special year for the Academy Remote Learning program: five of our students are graduating with us in the spring! Some of these students have been with us since the start of this program. We wanted to highlight one of these students in particular, to help show the good fruit that is coming from the education these youth are receiving.
Victor Lubega is a young man who has excelled through the Academy Remote Learning program. His teachers all know him to be enthusiastic, communicative and hard working. He has received Exemplary Student awards several times in his years with us.
One practical benefit of being with our program is that it has allowed Victor to remain close to his family through his teenage years. Students who attend local schools in Uganda are often gone for 9-10 hours a day. This increases at the secondary school level; they might be gone from 6:00am to 10:00pm at night! This is an incredibly taxing system that keeps them away from parents. Our cooperatives in East Africa have expressed many times how grateful they are to have their children near them, to be able to look out for them and invest in them as they are getting their education remotely.
Another benefit of this Academy program is that Victor will graduate with strong literacy skills. Previous graduates from the Remote Learning program have entered the Institute for GOD college, and have a huge advantage compared to their peers who attended local schools in Uganda. They know how to critically engage literature, organize their thoughts into essays, and write clearly with strong grammar. As people of scripture, we know how important it is to be able to engage the written Word. It is a key part of human development, enabling us to image God as He intended.
Finally, Victor has been able to pursue his interest in electrical engineering, and get practical experience in this career field. This year he is completing his senior internship with Community Works, a program of GOD Int’l that focuses on infrastructure development in the 3rd world. With Community Works manager James Lasater supervising him remotely, Victor was able to work with an older mentor on the ground on several projects this semester. The first was to install solar energy systems to every house on the GOD Int’l campus, enabling personnel there to access power even when the local electricity goes out. This kind of career jumpstart is something we’ve been able to offer our students both locally here in Nashville and abroad. It saves time and money after graduation for young people like Victor who are determining a career path. Victor now has practical experience in the field of solar energy, and a confidence that he would like to continue down the path of an electrician.
There are so many wonderful things happening in the lives of our remote students. But we do have some very practical needs remaining for this year. At the beginning of the school year we received some generous donations that helped cover a portion of student scholarships, yet there is a remaining need of $17,950. This covers tuition, technology access and academic support to our students in Uganda and Morristown. It would relieve parents from shouldering the burden of this year’s school fees alone. Would you consider investing into the lives of these young men and women? Join us in offering them a safe and nurturing school environment, and putting them on a path for a bright future.
