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Augustino Ting Mayai Is Changing Life Trajectories of South Sudanese Youth
Augustino Ting Mayai Is Changing Life Trajectories of South Sudanese Youth
My name is Fran Roby. A PhD alumnus of UW–Madison named Dr. Augustino Mayai MS’08, PhD’15 and I started a nonprofit organization, staffed entirely by volunteers, that provides college scholarships to poor youth of South Sudan. South Sudan is rated the poorest country in the world. This year we are providing 183 youth the life-changing opportunity to change their lives and the lives of the communities in which they will live and work.
Augustino is a “Lost Boy of Sudan.” At age eight, he ran from his village to save his life, lived in a refugee camp for 10 years, and then was given the opportunity to immigrate to the U.S.
In January of 2024, Augustino was appointed to the highest level of the national government of South Sudan.
Our scholarship program, PASS, is virtually the only college scholarship option for the tens of thousand students who graduate from secondary school with high marks. A few international NGOs offer scholarships; however, the number of scholarships that are given to youth from South Sudan is less than 15 each year. Although we have added 30 to 40 new scholarship recipients each year, we have turned away hundreds of qualified candidates due to lack of funds.
Here is an excerpt from our Mission Statement:
Padoc Area Scholars Society (PASS) is a college scholarship program available for all qualified South Sudanese citizens. South Sudan is rated by GlobalFinanceMagazine.com as the poorest country in the world, with a per capita annual income of $455 compared to Haiti at $3,108. South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after many decades of civil war. South Sudan is sorely lacking basic infrastructure and has a lack of a professionally and vocationally trained workforce.
The greatest ongoing tragedy in South Sudan is the waste of human potential; tens of thousands of intelligent, hard working, ambitious youth graduate high school each year and do not continue with their education due to lack of financial ability to pay for college. Scholarship opportunities in South Sudan are virtually non-existent with the exception of our program. Without a viable way of earning a living and lacking a bigger picture perspective that comes from a college education, many youth are recruited into armed gangs who steal cows, abduct children, and engage in retaliatory inter-tribal violence.
Due to decades-long multiple civil wars, the communities from which our scholarship applicants come have been deprived of development opportunities for many years. Many of our applicants are orphans and suffer from PTSD as a result of experiencing traumatic events throughout their lifetimes and the lifetimes of their parents.
Please use the link below to visit our website to learn more about this program that we have worked very hard to establish. Please check out our video and a Minnesota Star Tribune article that can be accessed by clicking on “Media” at the upper right corner of the home page.
More Alumni Notes
My name is Fran Roby. A PhD alumnus of UW–Madison named Dr. Augustino Mayai MS’08, PhD’15 and I started a nonprofit organization that provides coll...