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CORVALLIS - An Oregon State University senior who spent more than six months working with a humanitarian group in West Africa will relate his experiences in a presentation on Wednesday, May 4, beginning at 6 p.m.

Free and open to the public, the talk by Lebanon resident Cody Donahue will be held in the OSU Women's Center.

Donahue will address "Women's Empowerment in Rural Communities in West Africa: The Tostan Non-formal Education Program and Sustainable Development."

Donahue is pursuing political science and international degrees with a minor in French and plans to receive his bachelor's degree from OSU in June. From June through December 2004, he interned with the non-profit group Tostan. Tostan, which means "breakthrough" in Wolof, is an American humanitarian group based in Senegal that works with communities in West Africa to provide education programs in health and human rights. The programs, taught in the maternal language of each village, recently aided in bringing about a law against the practice of female genital mutilation in Senegal.

Last spring, Donahue received $5,000 and earned recognition as a 2004 winner of OSU's College of Liberal Arts Leadership in Social Change Award. The award money went to support his internship.

The experience was coordinated through the Oregon University System's IE3 Global Internships program. The program was created by the OUS to provide students with an improved understanding of global issues and equip them with professional experience and international competence. Since the beginning of the program in 1995, more than 800 interns have participated in the program.

Donahue first began working toward social change with volunteer activities with the Boys and Girls Club of Lebanon and with the organization of Red Cross blood drives at Lebanon High School.

The Boys and Girls Club experience was Donahue's first job working with students, the majority of whom came from low-income families. Once at OSU, Donahue joined the student and community political action group WRENCH, which calls for an end to racial, gender, and social discrimination and inequality through creative, non-violent, and democratic means.

Donahue spent 2003-04 on study abroad in Lyon, France, to add an international component to the OSU undergraduate experience.