With fewer than one doctor per 1,000 people, Eritrea could use the kind of medical skills Weyni Hailemariam is learning as a college-level Atterbury Job Corps student.
The Red Sea coastal nation in Africa, which neighbors Ethiopia, is about the size of Indiana but has more than 6 million people. The majority of those are 24 years old or younger because of high birth rates and poor life expectancy.
Hailemariam, 19, who wants to be a nurse and eventually a doctor, considers herself on her way to helping bring change to Eritrea, her home country, thanks to the education she is receiving by way of a 10-year partnership between Job Corps and Ivy Tech Community College — Columbus/Franklin.
Through its Advanced Career Training program, the partnership allows students like Hailemariam, who have finished the federally funded Job Corps program in not more than two years, to continue on to Ivy Tech for a third year on the federal government’s dime.
Received on Mon Sep 09 2013 - 11:32:58 EDT