all right Chris tell me uh are there any scholarships that the U.S consulate Karachi is offering to Pakistan yes we have a lot of scholarships and it depends on um what level of Education you want so we have some for high schools some for Masters some for postdoc and even in doctoral I’ve never heard of high school yeah the high school one is the Kennedy Luger scholarship um it’s a lot of people might know it here as yes as the scholarship yes um it is for high school students to be able to go spend a semester of their.
High School semesters back in the U.S they get connected with a family they get to go to high school in the US and experience you know typical U.S high school and come back and see how their education is that’s interesting yeah it’s the it’s one of one of the ones that is lesser known because you know high school students they you know they might not be on all the social media and talking about their experiences well they are on social media but a lot of them uh we we enjoy um in fact with all of the scholarship.
ships I’m about to talk about I think we send about 800 pakistanis every year Pakistani students to the U.S to study in the U.S in one of the sectors the other one that we do is the study for the U.S institute of student leaders a lot of people this is for Public Policy or Susie this is for undergrads and that is a short-term Academic Program based on public policy we also have the scholarships that are administered through the U.
S bilateral commission the United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan or a us efp and they they monitor or they oversee the Humphrey scholarships the u-grad which is a semester abroad in the U.S and also the Fulbright which I think is probably the most famous but that is money that the United States is is giving and this is the bilateral commission and they’re the ones Who oversee those programs but it’s really U.
S government money that is paying for these last year we were able to send 178 students on their masters and PHD programs in 2022 and many of them are to you know the best universities all paid for 100 paid for and I would encourage anyone everyone who’s listening to look into that program and pursue their masters or PhD in the US um I this is how I met a lot of my Pakistani friends I was doing my masters and there were some Fulbright students that were from Pakistan and I mean we became best friends they we were a cohort and finished the same program and.
they’ve gone on to do great things here in Pakistan and and elsewhere and we still remain friends to this day.
I think I saw what what Fulbright can do and really I think it’s important to note here that Pakistan as a country has the largest network of alumni in the world really compared to any other country not even India not even India how’s that possible we invested Pakistan this is what I’m telling you I’m trying to tell you so the puon network which is the Pakistan United States Alumni network is the biggest in the world uh I’m talking I mean it’s it’s thousands right like I um I I want to um I mean think about 800 Pakistani students every year multiplied however many years we’ve been here um and I think a lot of people are surprised by that I think it’s close to 36 000 alumni uh that we’ve sent to the US either in short-term exchanges or the longer term semester or the whole master’s program and they’re able to come back and they’re part of this awesome Network I mean we even have one.
of my colleagues who’s basically sold job is to work with the puon network and after people come back from their Exchange program they’re part of this network and they can continue to get grants to establish projects here in Pakistan one of my ones that.
I favor ones that I’ve I’m just starting in quetta actually in Balochistan is one called green blue and they it’s a puon network grant that is looking at you know talking about climate change they’re looking at Urban forests and um they’re with this seed money grant.
they’re able to uh their their plan is to reforest a whole mountainside and that is going to create jobs and looking at at the projects that I’ve seen here also with women entrepreneurs seed money for them to start their businesses I think that one’s called entrepowered I’m not sure if that one’s is that puon or is that ours I think that’s I think that might be our our program but you can see the types of projects that we’ve done um that the Alumni network decides you know what I’ve come back I studied in
the U.S I want to give back to Pakistan they’ll apply for this these grants and we give them seed money to implement the Grant and some of them have done great work.
around flooding we’ve we’ve done a video series on the work that we’ve done and it’s not you know it’s not us doing the work we can’t be everywhere and we don’t know what communities need everywhere so we rely on the puon network to say you know what my community needs this U.S consulate Karachi or U.
S government give me some seed money that happens and they’re able to establish what the needs
of that Community are that’s why I love this program and the exchanges are so important Fulbright obviously it’s for your Personal Achievement but also when you come back and you’re able to invest in your country and I’ve seen incredible stories of what fulbrighters are doing in the country it’s just amazing I don’t know it’s just my like literally this is this is awesome part of my job interestin