WASHINGTON: Masood Khan, the Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States has advised a group of 25 Pakistani students currently enrolled in an educational programme there to use this opportunity to widen their intellectual horizons.
The students are here under the ‘Study of the US Institutes (SUSI) program, which aims to promote intercultural understanding and educational cooperation between Pakistan and the United States.
The 5-week annual program started in 2010, and the Ambassador noted that from the 1950s to the present, education had been a “robust link” between the two countries.
The students visited him on Sunday, and he expressed his gratitude for them being chosen and for making “us proud.” This is a process of cross-fertilization, the Ambassador continued, so “you will take valuable inputs from here back to your environments.” Masood Khan continued, pointing out that intelligence knows no bounds, saying, “Your peers and the environments in which you work will benefit directly from your experience.”
He hoped that the international students’ exposure would enable them to recreate and apply what they had seen while in the country. The Ambassador told the students they represented a great civilization with 75 years of nation-building experience and several upheavals. Masood Khan expressed his gratitude to the American government for its dedication to fostering international educational cooperation and to everyone engaged in the SUSI program’s planning. He thanked The University of Amherst, Massachusetts, and the US mentors for hosting the visiting fellows.
While sharing their experiences, the participants praised the remarkable organizational skills that they experienced at the societal and individual levels, the appreciation of diversity, the provision of equal opportunities, the spirit of inclusivity, the formulation and execution of policies at federal and state levels, presence of an informed and vigilant citizenry to guard their rights and discharge their responsibilities, and the interactive environment. —APP
