Ambassador brings Ethiopian delegation to Tech 

The path from Ethiopia to Texas Tech is one freshman Dagmawit Kiros knows well.
“I wanted to go to college in a different area, different from back home, and I have family here,” she said.
Kiros is studying international business at Tech and, after graduation, she plans to return to Ethiopia to work in the family business.
On Monday, April 22, Tech welcomed a delegation of Ethiopian university officials, led by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, who is also the minister of education.
Tech Vice Provost Tibor P. Nagy Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, and the Ethiopians are hoping to see many more students like Kiros following the path to and from Tech and its sister campuses.
“Our objective is to see how American universities operate and to increase our own education capacity,” said Girma Birru, Ethiopia’s ambassador to the United States and a member of the delegation.
Ethiopia, which has a growing economy, has expanded from three to 31 institutions of higher education in the past decade.
“Education is a fundamental tool to sustain development and growth,” Mekonnen said. “This is a benchmark opportunity for us.”
Birru said the delegation, which included eight university presidents, was hoping to find qualified university educators interested in teaching in Ethiopia as well as to make agreements that will smooth the way for Ethiopians to become more qualified teachers by earning master’s degrees and doctorates in the U.S.
Tech was one stop for the delegation, which was sponsored by the U.S. State Department and a consortium of universities that also includes Tarleton State, Texas A&M Kingsville, Oklahoma State, Kansas State and Langston University in Oklahoma.
“Ethiopia is one of the safest, friendliest countries in the world,” said Nagy, who helped organize this trip and an earlier trip by U.S. education officials to Ethiopia. He served two terms as the ambassador to Ethiopia.
“We’d like to focus on the universities here because of the connections with Ambassador Nagy,” Birru said. “He’d like to be helpful on this. The other thing is we have a consul here in Houston (Gezahgen Kebede, the Ethiopian honorary consul).”
Joseph Rallo, the Texas Tech System vice chancellor for academic affairs, said, “We would like to become the preferred destination for their doctoral students.”
Alem Mebrahtu, vice president for academic, research and community services for Adigrat University in Ethiopia, said his university offers “all the programs, all combinations.”
“We want to have a lot of communication and contacts” from this trip, he said.
Chancellor Kent Hance of the Tech system welcomed the delegation to the reception Monday at the National Ranching Heritage Center, saying it was on his “bucket list” to visit Ethiopia.
“Your students are going to visit the United States and study in the United States and we don’t ask that they all come to Texas Tech — just 90 percent,” he said.
Hance said recruiting more international students is important for Tech as a tier one research school. A partnership with Ethiopia’s universities could also help Tech reach its goal of an enrollment of 40,000 by 2020.
“One of the things we want to do is have an international brand,” Hance said.