My name is Tyobista. I grew up in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. I went to a Catholic girls school all throughout my elementary, middle and high school. As a senior in high school, I realized that there is not much options in what I could study if I stayed in Ethiopia, so I decided to come to the U.S. I first attended La Salle University for a year and a half. La Salle was great but did not have the major I wanted and also did not offer me much financial aid so I transferred to Gettysburg College. I graduated cum laude and honors in my major from Gettysburg on May 17. While in Gettysburg I majored in Globalization Studies and I designed my own focus on postconflict transformation and community development in Africa. I studied abroad in South Africa, did an internship in Ghana and conducted research and participated on immersion trip in Morocco. I was very active on campus and participated in various events and campus organizations. I was part of the diversity peer educators which was a campus organizations that promotes diversity and inclusion, I was the founding member of the Gettysburg African Student Association where we tried to show our presence on campus and help people learn about our different African cultures.
I also worked a project leader for the leadership institute where I helped organize a semester long program where selected participants learn about the Little Rock Crisis and other civil right issues of the past and current times.
Another project lead and I led the immersion trip to Abilene, Kansas and Little Rock, Arkansas, at the end of the semester where we took the participants to actually see everything they have learned about. We visited Little Rock Central High School and we did some leadership workshops with some students from the high school. In addition to this I have participated on immersion trips to Selma to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the march.
I have always been passionate about equality, justice, peace and human rights. I grew up in a family that has instilled values in me that we all need to help each other so I have always thought that I would want a career where I would be making some sorts of positive impact on the lives of the disadvantaged, the neglected and the most vulnerable groups of society. I know my time in Gettysburg, the extremely challenging classes coupled with all the outside classroom activities have helped me grow and be more critical.
However, I know that I still have a lot to learn about various conflicts and how we can find ways to help those that are in pain. It is hard to care when something is not happening next to you or affecting you. But it is important to know what Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” So I have always tried to think that even if the war in Syria, the constant conflict in Congo, the unrest in Egypt, the injustice on the immigrants of Rohingya, Eritrea, Philippines and so on, does not affect me directly, it is still disturbing the peace in the world and other young people like me are being deprived of a normal life, other people like my mom, dad and so on are not going to bed with fear of not waking up in the morning. I would never want to think about any human feeling pain and I would like to do what I can in my own capacity to make someone's life a little bit better.