Eritrean Youth Top 5% In US National Merit Scholarship Program

Thomas C. Mountain (US Eritrean Peoples Friendship Association) , Jul 30, 2005

Merkeb Yohannes, daughter of Saba Solomon and Johannes Drar of Richmond California has been recognized as ranking in the top 5% of all US National Merit Scholars and awarded a full scholarship including room and board, valued at over $200,000, to the University of California, Riverside in the pre-medicine program.

For Merkeb to be recognized in the top 5% is an outstanding honor. Tens of thousands of the top students in the USA apply for National Merit Scholarships, and after exhaustive testing and evaluation the list is narrowed to the very best in the country.

When I learned that Merkeb speaks English as her second language, was born in Kenya and only immigrated to the USA at the age of 12 my admiration for her hard work and high expectations took a while to really sink in. So often youth like Merkeb are programmed to fail, or to accept second best as good enough. I decided I needed to learn more about this outstanding Eritrean youth.

After talking to Merkeb it got better still because Merkeb Yohannes goal is to become a doctor, leaning towards a specialty in pediatrics, following which she wants to move back "home" to what she understands is her real homeland, Eritrea, and use her skills to help her "motherland".

How many newly minted US doctors are willing to work so hard to achieve their medical license and then move to the third world and work on the front lines in one of the poorest countries in the world? Those of us who know the Eritrean community dont find this all so suprising.

Eritreans have been doing this now for a couple of generations, going back to the 1960's and the early days of the Eritrean armed struggle for independence. Merkeb is another in a long line of patriotic Eritrean youth. Still, our congratulations to Merkeb and her parents, Saba and John, for instilling the sort of values of love of country and self sacrifice to her fellow countrymen and women in Eritrea. To be a part of building the future is a life worth living. Otherwise what meaning and worth does life have other than looking out for number one and a life of loneliness and alienation.

Life isnt all hard work though. After attending the Eritrean Festival in Oakland California, Merkeb is being rewarded with a week in beautiful Hawaii as a guest of Almaz Welday and Thomas C. Mountain of the US Eritrean Peoples Friendship Association, following which she will begin her studies.

Congratulations to Merkeb and her family and
Selam and rain, rain and more rain for Eritrea!

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