ELVIS Ebotson, Cameroon

Elvis Ebotson was in his third year working as a computer maintenance instructor in a private school in Douala when a former co-student already studying and residing in Leuven told him about the International Educating Class (IEC). Moving back and forth between the French and English speaking provinces of Cameroon, Elvis had had a bilingual education.

“What appealed to me when I heard more about the program was the prospect of personal and professional growth, of acquiring professional and practical skills, and finding a new methodology to teach my students computer maintenance. The Higher National Diploma is a qualification I got after a two-year training program, and it gave me access to the undergraduate classes of the IEC.”

"After only one semester of Exploring Education my mind has become more open and analytical. This is the first time I left Cameroon and the mix of people from different cultures I encountered at Group T, together with the input I got during this course, have made me a different person. I learned about new concepts, like ‘sustainable development’, about long-term planning in education, about language code and culture, and so much more. But writing papers about capacity building and innovation and giving presentations about child labor in Cameroon, for example, was very challenging.”

Elvis Ebotson has been experiencing life in Leuven and studies at Group T as well-structured and well-planned. He misses family and friends, although email and Skype make keeping in touch easy and cheap. But African food is more difficult to find.

"The skills and competencies I've already acquired so far make me confident that after the Enterprising Education semester next fall I will know how best to serve my community.” He cherishes his international contacts and when he goes back to his teaching job, he will certainly remain a Facebook friend of the IEC. What he will miss most, back in Cameroon, is the Belgian weather: “Never too hot, never too cold.”

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