Q&A with Entrada grad Yohana Yigezu
In 2025, Yohana Yigezu begins her studies in civil engineering at 鶹.
Yohana Yigezu ’29 is from Cairo, Egypt. While she never visited campus before deciding on coming to Calvin, she had plenty of positive feedback from those at her church, who she says, “are almost all alumni from Calvin.”
Her first visit came in July 2025 during the Entrada Scholars Program. She said that one-month college immersion experience gave her time to “not only prepare for college life, but also to experience living in the U.S. for the first time.
How has your view of college changed since attending Entrada?
It’s changed because everyone tells you it’s a lot of work, a lot of time management –But when you experience it, it is different. So, in navigating that you see that ‘oh wow, I need to step up my game for college.’ I was scared to make new friends, take new courses, but I realized it’s not as scary as I thought it would be. In high school you hear people say that no one will help you in college and that you’re on your own, but in the Entrada program I had a lot more support than what I was expecting.
What’s your experience been like with professors?
Coming here and professors saying ‘you can call me by my first name’ or ‘here’s snacks for you to share while we study’ or them opening up office hours to spend time with you wasn’t something I was used to. I grew up in an educational environment with clear lines between teacher and student. But here, I’ve found there to be an element of friendship and care that I really like.
What is your greatest takeaway from this experience?
My greatest takeaway would be “do it scared” – I think there’s so many new things I had to do and learn that I was scared or nervous about, but those 30 seconds of fear before meeting a new person, that 20 minutes of learning a new thing you were scared to admit you didn’t know is not even comparable to what I ended up learning or friendships I ended up making. It was worth it. Putting myself out there, doing it scared, gave me a much greater reward.
Because of Entrada, I feel more confident in …
I feel more confident in coming to university and starting in the fall. I think that if I hadn’t done Entrada, had to start all of my classes all at once, to not know where everything is, and to experience living in the U.S. for the first time, that would have been much scarier for me.
