Haiti

Year: 2008-2010
Granting Agency: USAID Mission in Haiti
Grant #: AEG-A-00-05-0007-00
Grant Amount: $552,000
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti

Virginia Tech is partnering with the Ecole Supérieure d’Infotronique d’Haìti in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to strengthen the school’s computer science program. The three-year project is being executed by Higher Education for Development (HED) through a cooperative agreement with the USAID mission in Haiti. The long-term goal of the project is to build capacity in Haiti’s institutions of higher education. 
The program has two main facets: to enhance the training of faculty at ESIH, and to provide funds that are enabling several ESIH students to complete their undergraduate training at Virginia Tech.

Undergraduate students at Virginia Tech:
The first five students—two women and three men—transferred to Virginia Tech in June of 2008. Under the guidelines of the program, they will complete their final two years of undergraduate study at Virginia Tech and then return to Haiti to get jobs in the private sector or to become teachers of information technology. The program requires that the students return to Haiti when their undergraduate training is completed. 

Faculty training opportunities:
Virginia Tech’s computer science faculty have traveled to Haiti to review and critique course offerings and content at ESIH. The program also allowed four ESIH faculty members to come to Virginia Tech for a month to learn how a large American university runs its computer science program.

Virginia Tech in the Caribbean:
Virginia Tech already has a program in the Dominican Republic, which combines with Haiti to make up the island of Hispaniola. With the IT program in Haiti, Virginia Tech officials hope to further expand the university’s Caribbean presence.
Virginia Tech faculty involved:

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