Help Jonas!: About Jonas

Jonas comes from Tioyo, a tiny village in Burkina Faso, West Africa. He speaks Loberi, his maternal tongue, along with five other languages (Djoula, Moore, French, German, and English). His interests include soccer, art, and social justice, and his goal is to help his country, which is deeply impacted by the changing climate, by studying Sustainable Agriculture at Sterling College starting August 2016.

Here are a few things you should know about Jonas:

He was the most honest little boy (and now young man) I’ve ever met. It’s almost spooky how defined his moral compass and sense of justice was at that young age, and it’s only further developed with time. On several occasions he served as my conscious. Once he caught me smoking (after just having given a health lesson at the local elementary school); after seeing the look of disappointment and tears in his eyes, the pack of cigarettes went straight into my latrine.
Looking back through my journal entries, I mention more than a few times the potential I saw in him to become a great leader for his country and I know this will come to pass. His dream is to study law and focus on social justice.
As a village kid from a poor family, his life thus far has been paved with challenges from logistical barriers (i.e., French—the language of instruction—was his third language and no one speaks it at home), to the more immediate ones (i.e., he nearly died at the start of high school and was out of school for half the year). In just the past few years he’s lived through the after effects of a military insurgency and a revolution. Last year, I received a chilling voicemail that Jonas left during the revolution. (In it, he is talking calmly letting me know that school has been shut down for at least two weeks while, in the backdrop, there are the sounds of screaming. I asked him later why the women were screaming and he told me that those were his neighbors, running away from their house that had been set on fire.) Needless to say, his drive, determination, and keen intelligence have kept him going in circumstances where most everyone I know would have given up.
He recently received the honor of obtaining his Baccalaureate on his very first attempt, and was consistently ranked at the head of his class at a top-ranked private school in Burkina. His class ranking the past four years are as follows:

Year of High School	Class Ranking	# of Students
4eme	1	96
3eme	2	90
2nd	3	60
1ere	2	66
Terminale	24[1]	57

Jonas loves his country, his family and his rich Lobi culture, and from our conversations it is clear that he would never want to leave that behind. There are three university options available to Jonas back home in Burkina. With classroom sizes of up to 800 with professors who seldom come to class, he fears that it will not prepare him for the work that he wants to do in the world. Additionally without connections to the upper class society, his options back home would be limited under normal circumstances. An American education and native level fluency in English will help to equalize this playing field for Jonas. He looks forward to the day he returns with new knowledge and skillsets that will set him up for success in attaining his long-range dreams of becoming a leader for his country.

May 2016 Update: Jonas has successfully completed the 16 week Intensive English Program at St. Michael's College. When he began, we knew it was an ambitious goal to be able to attain proficiency in such a short amount of time. However he surpassed his goal and received a TOEFL score that enabled him to apply to the school he wanted to attend--Sterling College. They accepted him and he earned $30k a year in scholarships based on his academics and merit. Thank you all for helping to make what seemed like an impossible dream come true! August 23rd he starts his four year program in Sustainable Agriculture...after last year's unprecedented drought in Burkina which greatly impacted his village and family, he felt compelled to change his focus to agriculture to help his country move forward in a time of increasing climate change. As a testament to his character and hard work, Jonas was asked to be the student speaker and the international student closing ceremonies at St. Mike's. Way to go Jonas!!

[1] Note: Of the 57 students in his class, 40 of them were taking that class for their second or third year in a row. School in Burkina is very difficult. 50% of students do not pass the elementary exam to continue on. After Junior High, another 50% do not pass the BEPC exam to continue, and passing the Baccalaureate exam on the first try is not common.