Senior Lindsay Walker got a first-hand look at the problems facing educators in developing countries when she worked with students in Ethiopia learning physics from a television.

“The contrast was stark between the large plasma screen TV in an otherwise plain classroom with broken windows,” Walker said.

Walker was one of nine students who participated in the first Park Scholar International Media Experience trip to Ethiopia in May. The students volunteered with three organizations that use media to educate citizens about health and political issues. The organizations focused on problems as diverse as population control and free press.

Senior Peter Berg produced an instructional video on how to use technical broadcasting equipment for the Educational Media Agency (EMA).

“I felt bad because these kids just wanted an education but there were no teachers,” Berg said.

In Ethiopia, there is a shortage of adequately trained teachers, he said. EMA addresses the problem by producing and broadcasting educational programs for the classroom.

In addition to working with the EMA, students volunteered at the Population Media Center and the Media Training Institute at the Addis Ababa University School of Journalism and Communication.

Walker also worked at the EMA and designed a marketing campaign for DVD versions of the lessons for African students.

Berg said that while the programs are designed primarily as supplements for other education methods, the lack of textbooks and teachers means that they are often the only source of information for the students, which students often find difficult to understand because they are done in English.

Berg said EMA had access to sophisticated equipment like plasma screen televisions donated by developed countries, but the staff often lacked the experience or knowledge to use the equipment.

The Park Scholars installed instant messenger programs on the computers in the EMA office so the employees could communicate with each other.

Senior Zack Wilson worked at the Ethiopian branch of the Population Media Center (PMC). The PMC is an international organization that uses radio programs to address health and social issues, such as population control and women’s rights.

According to Wilson, population control is a serious problem in the rural areas because parents want their kids to take care of them when they’re older.

“Kids are viewed as social security,” Wilson said.

Matt Fee, director of the Park Scholar Program who also led the trip, said some Ethiopian students wanted to be journalists, even though many journalists in Ethiopia have been imprisoned.

“There was a real passion for media there and what it can achieve,” Fee said.

Walker said she was impressed by the efforts of the organizations to use media to educate people about AIDS and contraceptives.

“They inspired me to become involved with health communications,” Walker said.

Berg said his group came face to face with the most pervasive poverty they had ever seen.

Berg said they were told not to give money to children because it would encourage them not to go to school, and heard horror stories of parents cutting off their children’s arms so they would get more money from begging. The students could see poverty- stricken shantytowns from their hotel in the capital city of Addis Ababa.

Despite the poverty in the area, Walker said the warm and affectionate Ethiopian culture impressed her. The students met with the Ethiopian Minister of Education, who thanked them for their service.

“I met some of the nicest people I’ve ever met in my life,” Berg said.

The program evolved as a progression from the European Media Experience program to one with a greater emphasis on media in developing countries. John E. Keshishoglou, the founding dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications, used contacts in Ethiopia to establish a relationship with the three organizations, Fee said.

“It was incredible,” he said. “[The trip] surpassed any expectations I had.”

Berg said he wished he could have stayed longer and gotten more accomplished.

Walker said she recommends that other students go abroad to developing countries.

“Every single day I think about the people in Ethiopia,” she said.