Iago Bojczuk, from Atibaia, São Paulo, Brazil, is the first student in the ICSP to receive acceptance from four out of five highly prestigious universities to pursue his graduate degree. He will be graduating from the University of Oregon on June 18, 2018, with three honors degrees: Robert D. Clark Honors College, School of Journalism and Communication Departmental Honors, and Cum Laude. 

Bojczuk initially hoped to apply to eight schools but due to a lack of funding, he ended up applying to only five: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, Columbia University in the City of New York.

The University of Oxford was the only school that sent him a rejection letter. “The rejection made me much more insecure, anxious, nervous about the other decisions to come,” said Bojczuk, “thankfully everything worked out at the end and I received admissions with either full or partial scholarships from Stanford, Columbia, Cambridge, and MIT.”

As the first generation from his family to go to college, Bojczuk didn’t even know the meaning of the word “university” until he was about to graduate from high school. “Although my parents knew very little about what college really was, there was an incommensurable amount of love, tenderness, and high hopes for a prosperous and blissful future,” said Bojczuk, “they instilled me a sense of appreciation for curiosity and provided me with everything they could for my education.”

Selected four times for the Honors College Dean’s List, Bojczuk worked diligently in the last four years in his honors college research, held several jobs, attended multiple conferences worldwide and kept a high GPA just so his dream to go to an Ivy League graduate school would come true. “I am lucky for having had the opportunity to find my true potential while attending the University of Oregon,” said Bojczuk, “looking back, it is rather difficult to assess how transformative these four years have been.” Bojczuk is grateful to his family for all the sacrifices his parents had made just so he could go to college. “I realized early on that education was the only path I could possibly take if I wanted to transform my life and ultimately leave an impactful legacy for others in Brazil,” said Bojczuk.

Starting Fall 2018 Bojczuk will be attending the Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT) on a full-ride scholarship to obtain a Master of Science in Comparative Media Studies. “It is the only place in the world where I will be able to explore my highly interdisciplinary research interests, situated at the intersection between new media technologies and cultures with a focus on Brazil,” said Bojczuk. He will also work as a research assistant for MIT’s Global Media Technologies & Cultures Laboratory (GMTaC Lab). “I envision bridging areas that are often unrelated and yet grounded on entrepreneurial endeavors: the embodiment of social change,” said Bojczuk, “I cannot think of a place more appropriate to further this aspiration than MIT.” Bojczuk has also been selected for a Jorge Paulo Lemann Fellowship, one of the most prestigious fellowships available to citizens of Brazil studying at the world’s best universities.

In the next 5-10 years, Bojczuk hopes to return to Brazil and continue researching and collaborating internationally. “Since family is the centerpiece of Brazilian culture, I want to be close to my loved ones as much as possible,” said Bojczuk. With his strong interest in fostering change throughmedia-based creations, he envisions himself to one day impact the world as a scholar.” One of my goals after graduating from MIT is to establish a center for new media technologies and innovation in Brazil that will give voice to people who come from underrepresented communities similar to the one I grew up in,” said Bojczuk. He hopes his center will empower the next generations to engage in discussions concerning public policies, educational practices, common humanity, and more inclusive cultural productions. “I am also hopeful one day that I will be able to give everything back to the UO community by establishing a scholarship to support minority students who, like myself, would never be able to change their lives through the transformative power of a college education,” said Bojczuk.

As a goodbye note to ICSP and UO, Bojzuk shared some tips to scholars who are interested in working hard to achieve their long term dreams.

• Having a plan of short- and long-term goals is very important.

• Persistence is key so it is important to have your interests and goals well aligned with your routine.

• Be humble and ask for help! There are good people out there willing to help. Those of us who are first generation also feel discouraged because this seems to be a world in which we are always outsiders. As Michelle Obama recently said, “Going to college is hard work, but every day I meet people whose lives have been profoundly changed by education, just as mine was. My advice to students is to be brave and stay with it.” 

In April 2018 Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (K-L YES) Program alumnus Mohammed Al Asttal attended a workshop in Kuwait on Sports for Development and Peace (SDP). Born and raised in Khan Yunis, Palestine, Asttal first came to the U.S. in 2014 through the K-L YES Program to attend the Pacific Crest Community School in Portland, Ore.

“I haven’t traveled out of Gaza before, but I wanted to enhance my English skills and open other options for my future,” said Asttal. He learned about the K-L YES Program while he was attending the English Micro Access Scholarship Program in Gaza. It is a two-year English Program that teaches students about the English language, American culture, and its history.

During his stay in Portland, he learned a lot about himself, his hometown and the U.S.  “When I first came here it was two weeks after the 2014 war in Gaza so it was quite a transition,” said Asttal, “I learned a lot, I matured through this experience and became a more critical thinker.”

After completing the K-L YES Program Asttal was determined to come back to the U.S. to pursue further education. He started looking for colleges in the U.S. that offered scholarships to international students but a few months after his return he and his family were stuck in Egypt. He recieved a full scholarship to study the SAT and TOEFL in Gaza but since he and his family were unable to return back to Gaza it led to the termination of his SAT scholarship. “There has been a big problem of people moving in and out of Gaza to Egypt, we left to Jordan through Egypt for my sister’s wedding, they told us the border would open on September 7, and every year the border only opens for a maximum of 30 days, but that year it didn’t,” said Asttal.

He and his family stayed in Al Arish, Egypt, 30 miles away from the border of Gaza strip until October. “It was an incredibly difficult time in Egypt, a lot of noise in downtown and military personnel were everywhere,” said Asttal. Every night from 10 p.m. the city would be under strict curfew and military personnel presence was ubiquitous. “I felt like my future was slipping away, everything I worked for was going away, ” said Asttal. By the end of October, once he was able to go back home, he started studying for the SAT and TOEFL and applied for colleges in the U.S.

Currently, Asttal is a sophomore at the University of Oregon majoring in International Studies with a focus on international relations and diplomacy.
Always looking for opportunities that will help him grow in his field, Asttal hopes to understand different cultures to bridge the gap between other countries and Palestine. During his four day workshop in Kuwait, Asttal learned that Peace was always possible. “If not through diplomatic relations on a big scale, it is possible to bring people together through sports and build a collective and collaborative team-spirit that eventually leads to enhancing relations between people in conflict zones,” said Asttal.

Astall is planning on graduating from the UO in 2020, and hopes to complete his Masters and Ph.D. in international relations from the U.K. “My presence in the U.S. gave me a sense of what I need to project a voice that is not heard,” said Asttal, “one day I hope to work for the UN as a Palestinian ambassador for other countries or as the ambassador for the UN.”

Deema Yusuf from Ramallah, Palestine joined a dance group at the Popular Art Center in Ramallah when she was only 13 years old. In her hometown, she loved watching men and women perform Dabkeh, a form of folk dancing that focuses a lot on feet movement and jumping, and is usually danced with a large group of people. In eighth grade, she joined her school’s dance group “Al-Awda” and started to perform and taught Dabkeh to her peers.

“I did not know I would love Dabkeh this much at the beginning. But It’s a beautiful type of dance, it kept me very active and it was so much fun to practice 4 hours a day 5 days a week,” said Yusuf. Dabkeh is a popular form of dance in Palestine and almost everyone in the country is familiar with some of the dance moves.

While dancing Dabkeh every dancer has to perform similar moves at the same time. It was mostly danced by men but women have also been joining in on the dance for a while now. “Recently we have been adding a lot of modern dance movements to Dabkeh performances to keep it fresh and up to date yet make sure to keep the original important moves and costumes the same,” said Yusuf.

While presenting for the ICSP Yusuf performs Dabkeh on her own. Yusuf believes that dancing Dabkeh is an important way to hold on to her traditions.  “I am very proud to be a Palestinian and dancing Dabkeh is one way to show that off and a way to protect our tradition and culture,” said Yusuf.

Yusuf will be graduating from the University of Oregon in March 2018 with a major in Religious studies and minors in International Studies and Arabic studies. “I’m interested in learning about different countries around the world, their history, and politics,” said Yusuf, “I focus on the Middle East and Islam because I can relate to these subjects a lot.”

“I would like to work at a place that aims to help Palestinians,” said Yusuf. During summer 2017 Yusuf worked at a non-profit organization in Palestine that supports Palestinians in many different ways. Some of which is by building new schools, and giving out scholarships for students to go to college. “I’m very interested in developing Palestine, fight the occupation through education and of course preserve the beautiful traditions, culture, and history of Palestine,” said Yusuf.

After graduation, Yusuf plans on going to law school to study law in either international or civil right. “I’m interested in law school because that is one way to fight the occupation,” said Yusuf, “most of what the Israeli government does in Palestine is illegal and I believe it is important to study law to understand what’s going on around me to hopefully do something about it later on by using my degree.”

Sharon Alitema from Kampala, Uganda has a passion for making a positive impact through her work in the realm of Architecture. She is a fourth-year architecture student at the University of Oregon and she is deeply invested in the impact of sustainable design on the environment.

Sharon recently completed a schematic and design development phase of a school for deaf children which will be constructed in Eastern Uganda in the Namutumba district.

In Uganda, there are approximately 78,000 deaf children who don’t receive any support due to the misconceptions about their ability to learn. Factors such as culture, poverty, lack of awareness and barriers to communication prevent them from being accepted into a school due to the stigma held by their communities. “Most deaf children have not had the opportunity to learn sign language,” said Sharon, “the mission for this school is to provide deaf children and families in the community with a safe place for them to thrive and receive the right support.”

Over the winter break, Sharon traveled to Uganda and visited the site where the school will be built. “For almost half the time on the project, I was working with no clue on what the site conditions were,” said Sharon, “all I had was a couple of photographs of the site.” She met with different engineers and construction companies that placed their bid on the project. Sharon also met with a few of the deaf students and their families which gave her a better idea of their demands and how their needs would fit into the design of the school. “Personally, I appreciated the opportunity to be a part of something so meaningful to the community and to my home country at large,” said Sharon

While designing the school Sharon had to consider the cost, climate, resource availability, and the construction feasibility of the project. She believes that the success of this project will be on embracing and negating through all the aspects of their resources. “My hope is that the result will be a sustainable building that combines passive solar design and cross-ventilation with the use of brick as the basic construction material,” said Sharon, “I want the school to be an object of pride for the deaf children and their families as well as a set precedent for the local community.”