Study in the US: Open arms extended to local students

Two-day college fair encourages Pakistani students to apply to educational institutes in the US.

ISLAMABAD:

A two-day college fair to encourage Pakistani students to apply to educational institutions in the US concluded on Sunday. The event was organised by US Embassy in collaboration with the US Educational Foundation in Pakistan.

Representatives of 11 US universities participated in the fair. The programme was part of the US government initiatives to increase the number of Pakistani students in their universities.

Speaking at the closing ceremony of the fair, Embassy Counselor for Public Affairs Mark Davidson said, “The United States has a long tradition of embracing foreign students. We want more Pakistani students to enrich our classrooms and benefit from our world-class universities.”

He added that of the 650,000 foreign students who attended US universities last year, over 5,000 were from Pakistan.

The fair included representatives from small liberal arts college, including an all women’s school to medium and large public universities.

“This fair furthers our mission of promoting mutual understanding between the people of Pakistan and the United States through educational and cultural exchange,” USEFP Executives Director Rita Akhtar said.

The university representatives spoke to hundreds of more students in Karachi, Lahore and Peshawar via digital video conferences.

The representatives, who conducted the workshop, were much impressed from the Pakistani students, praising their hard work and intelligence and stressing that they needed more opportunities to hone their talent.

The US Embassy in Pakistan runs the US government’s largest educational and cultural programme in the world. The Fulbright and undergraduate scholarships, professional and youth exchanges and English learning micro-scholarships are important components of the US government’s commitment to provide educational opportunities for Pakistani students, increase people-to-people ties and build a partnership with Pakistan based on mutual trust and respect.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2011.