NEWS & MORE

Congratulations to USEFP alumni Dr. Shamshad Akhtar and Professor Dr. Hasan Askari Rizvi, on their appointments to positions in the caretaker government.

On Friday, May 4, 2018, Fulbright alumna Tayyaba Azeem, founder of SpeakUp!, organized a coaching session for Differently Abled Persons (DAP) with the support of USEFP at its Karachi premises. The session was attended by DAPs from different educational backgrounds and interests and facilitated by a fully-trained sign language interpreter from ConnectHear.

Over 150 Fulbright and Humphrey alumni travelled to Karachi, to celebrate 70 years of friendship between Pakistan and United States, as part of the 14th Annual Fulbright and Humphrey Conference, which took place between March 2 and March 4, 2018.

In an effort to foster a healthy exchange of ideas, encourage meaningful discussion, and influence change, USEFP organized PhD Alumni Forums, for Fulbright alumni who completed their PhD degrees in the United States. The forums were held in Islamabad as well as Karachi and were also attended by representatives from the U.S. Embassy and USEFP.

A pre-departure orientation (PDO) was held in Islamabad to celebrate the success of this year’s final candidates for the Fulbright Degree Program. The program is the American government’s flagship academic exchange program, and the program in Pakistan is one of the largest in the world thanks to contributions by both the American and Pakistani governments.

The following is a heartfelt post by Fulbright alumna, Amna Yameen, describing her experiences as a Pakistani, Muslim student in the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship. She returned in 2016 with a Master’s degree in Human Resource Development from the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. She can be reached here. 

In developing societies like Pakistan, where innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit is slowly finding roots thanks to incubators like Plan 9, i2i, WeCreate, and spaces at top universities like LUMS and NUST, people are embracing a variety of problem solving techniques to help address local community problems. According to Fulbright alumnus, Ahsaan Rizvi, one way to identify opportunities for intervention, and to develop possible solutions, is to train young minds in design thinking, specifically, human centered design thinking – a creative approach to problem solving, which according to IDEO dot org, “starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs.”

The wait is over – here’s your chance to compete for one of the most prestigious scholarship programs in the world: the Fulbright!Fulbright is the flagship scholarship program of the U.S. Department of State. The United States Educational Foundation in Pakistan (USEFP) officially announced the opening of the Fulbright Award 2018 round on March 6th of this year. The program invites Pakistani students to apply for the Fulbright Student (Master’s and PhD) and Fulbright-Higher Education Commission (HEC) PhD Program, which fully funds Master’s or PhD study at top universities in the United States. The Fulbright-HEC PhD scholarship is funded by the Government of Pakistan and managed by USEFP under Fulbright policies and regulations.

My Amazon wish list Just. Got. BIGGER! But who’s to blame for my empty wallet? (Because let’s face it, it’s going to get empty once I start scrolling through Amazon’s Sephora page). And if you’re anything like me, for whom an online deal makes your heart pound and hands sweat in excitement, you’ll want to love to hate the person responsible for making all your online shopping dreams come true. You’ll have none other than Fulbrighter Madiha Nasrullah to blame. This young, Lahore based entrepreneur is about to launch Nazdeeq, an online shopping portal that intends to give its audience, easy, reliable and creative access to a wide variety of global brands. In other words, it’s shopping at your fingertips, in a country where products bought on one of the world’s largest online portals has yet to deliver to Pakistani doorsteps.

As you read this, over 33,000 people are still “talking” about #FulbrightHeroes on Facebook! Undoubtedly the documentary series has found an eager audience on social media and beyond. Launched on September 30, 2016, the series are a poignant reminder of how the Fulbright grant is helping ordinary people lead extraordinary lives by shaping the world around them.

Muhammad Anwar Ul Haq is being recognized both locally and internationally for his contribution to Pakistan’s energy sector. Most recently, he received the inaugural Young Development Leader Award from the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms for his performance in the field of energy, which is critical to the realization of the Vision 2025 goals – a road map detailing Pakistan’s socio-economic development strategy. Earlier this year, he was also selected to the World Energy Council’s prestigious Future Energy Leaders program. Anwar graduated with a Master’s in Engineering Management from Duke University on a Fulbright scholarship. He is a partner and head of renewables practice at Aequitas, a financial advisory and energy project development firm in Pakistan. With this kind of success, it’s no wonder we want to learn more about his Fulbright journey. Here’s what he had to say.

USEFP just bid adieu to another talented cohort of 15 Fulbright scholars (2016 – 2017) heading to top U.S. universities, which include Harvard Law School, Princeton University, UC Berkeley and Harvard Medical School. Hailing from across the country, these Pakistani scholars – who all hold doctoral degrees in a variety of specializations – will undertake 12 months of invigorating lectures and or opportunities for post-doctoral research in their field of study.