VIDEO: Rwandan student finishes up time at Western

Submitted by admin on Fri, 06/05/2015 - 1:03pm

When 28-year-old Hassan Byumvuhore bowled for the first time this April, he threw a perfect strike – and he didn’t even have his fingers in the holes of the ball.

Byumvuhore, from Rwanda, is now a student in Western’s Intensive English Program, where he is learning a new language – and making some new friends.

Byumvuhore first learned about Western two years ago when he was a custodian in a health center in Gashora, Rwanda, and a group of students from Western’s Center for Service-Learning came to teach English to the staff. Though visas to study in the U.S. are difficult to obtain in Rwanda, CSL Director Tim Costello (’81, Fairhaven Interdisciplinary Concentration) helped Byumvuhore enroll at Western and hopes Byumvuhore will develop skills which will position him for better employment opportunities in Rwanda.

For now, though, he’s enjoying the daily life of a Western student and soaking up as much culture as he can, one strike at a time.