Global Certificate active through Covid-19 pandemic

Last spring as the last quarter of the school year went virtual the Global Certificate Program continued on, and we have a number of things to celebrate. For one, we had six seniors graduate with the certificate this past year. Despite not being in the building they were still able to receive their official Certificate, honor chord for graduation and their leather travel journal from Haiti Made. The Rotary Club of Mukwonago showed strong support by awarding Cora Smith (one of our graduates) with a scholarship in recognition for her hard work within the Global Certificate program. We are proud of all six of the students who graduated with the certificate and we wish all of them the best of luck as they prepare for their fall school experience at their various colleges.

The Global Certificate program was also excited to be able to carry on its tradition of hosting a guest speaker every semester. While we were not able to do this in person, we were able to schedule a virtual discussion with University Professor, Dr. Hassimi Traore from UW-Whitewater. We had about thirty students log in for the presentation and others watched the recorded video afterwards.

Dr. Traore shared his experiences growing up in Burkina Faso. Dr. Traore talked about challenges in school, poverty, the hard work and strong support from friends and his mother in his home community. He also shared a touching story about his best friend being killed after being hit by a car because there was no ambulance in the community to transfer his friend to a hospital. As a result Dr. Traore now works to support orphans and widows back in Burkina Faso and has purchased three ambulances and transported them from the US to Burkina Faso and then donated them to communities so lives can be saved. His positive message of helping others and his own appreciation for school and education was well received by the students in attendance.

While we are preparing for the new school year we are looking forward to new students joining the Global Certificate program and we will be excited to announce our next speaker for the fall semester this year.