Aida Buzuayehu - International Community School of Addis Ababa

Desta Hagos at CLU, 1971
Aside from this, one of her greatest
inspirations and mentors in life was the
infamous artist Gebre Kirstos Desta. Again
being the only female, a couple years later
she opened an art studio with four
accomplished male artists at the University
where she experienced becoming an actress.
“I had no idea what I was doing. I just used
to love watching plays. But artist Debebe
Eshetu and the late Wogayehu Negatu
encouraged me to try my hand at it,” (Hagos,
May 2011). In January 1970, after several attempts at careers in performing arts, Desta
traveled to the United States to attend the California Lutheran University (CLU) where
she graduated with a B.A degree in Fine Arts. During a relaxed interview, when asked to
describe her personality, she responded by saying, “I’ve always been a very social
person; I had many friends all over the world. One of my friends in California has
named her first blue-eyed, blonde daughter ‘Desta’ after me”. Clearly Desta was a
cheerful person and a joy to be around. It was theses characteristics that allowed her to
always end up amongst the top as the only female.
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