DAVIS-

UC Davis history major Jonny Goh says he was surprised that the violence is escalating in Egypt where he was evacuated last week.

Goh was part of a university education abroad program which consisted of 10 students and a professor.

Goh said news of the elected president of Egypt Mohamed Morsi had been deposed by the military brought on huge celebrations and so he thought he was not in danger.

But subsequent violent protests showed that the U-C Davis Education Abroad Program’s decision to bring students home was a correct one.

“It caught us all by surprise,” said Goh from his Davis home.

He also said Assistant Professor Noha Radwan, who decided to stay in her native Egypt was safe.  Radwan was injured two years ago during the Egyptian uprising that brought down Hosni Mubarak.  Goh has been in contact with her and said Radwan was disappointed that there was more violence in Egypt.

The program makes safety assessments and contingency plans  to deal with emergencies in all of the countries where it sponsors programs.  That includes security personnel available to effect evacuations of students and instructors.

“When we make a decision to evacuate a program we have a response in place pretty quickly,” said Zachary Frieders, Associate Director of the program.

Students are getting partial refunds and partial academic credit for the time they spent in Egypt.

Goh said he would like to travel to other countries, but that experiencing historic events in the making is a history major’s dream.

“I definitely wouldn’t mind going back to Egypt, it was amazing,” said Goh.