A gift that endures: He helps those who have made the same journey

Students from the Institute for East African Councils on Higher Education listen during a workshop. (Hermela Welday)

Matheos Mesfin traveled to the United States in 2007, coming from Ethiopia to reunite with his mother, who had lived here for some time. He enrolled in a D.C. public school, an educational transition that was a real culture shock. It was a school with a metal detector, something he hadn’t encountered in his homeland.

“It was a time where I had to sort of navigate by myself, find my niche, get involved,” he said.

That led to a nomination for a scholarship, which led to Grinnell College, a liberal arts school in Iowa. It was an unfamiliar place. He met a hipster there, he said, a dude who had “said no to shoes.” So, that was a shock, too.

“Academically, it was one of the most intense places I’ve ever been,” he said. “It was just full of erudites, full of intellect. So I had a lot of catching up to do.”

All of this is to say that the 25-year-old Mesfin gets it. He knows how it feels to be a young student in an immigrant family, trying to wade through the American higher education system. He knows the challenges. He understands the concerns.

Now, Mesfin is trying to make things a little better for other students. He is founder and executive director of the Institute for East African Councils on Higher Education, a nonprofit that works with high school students of East African heritage who are immigrants or the children of immigrants. The nonprofit — known as IEA Councils — helps students navigate the dizzying admissions process and makes sure they understand what it means to be a college student.

“We jump in at that critical moment and say these are the schools you can consider, these are the benefits of going to this school,” Mesfin said. “This is why we believe you’re worth this institution. You have every credential that they are listing. Why in the world do you not see yourself going — what’s holding you back?”

[She had been in the U.S. for hours when an explosion changed everything]

Among the students the IEA Councils has helped: Bitseat Getaneh, an 18-year-old who came to the United States from Ethiopia in 2016. Just hours after Getaneh arrived in the country, a massive explosion ripped through the Silver Spring apartment building where she was staying, killing seven people. Getaneh suffered burns and a fractured collar bone. She spent weeks in the hospital. Read more here