Press Releases 2008

Remarks
by
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE GOLI AMERI
Techno India College, Kolkata, India
Thursday, August 21, 2008

August 21, 2008

Thank you Mr. Chairman.  It was wonderful to meet you and I appreciate the invitation to speak to the university community today.  I’m honored to be here to talk with you about the special relationship between the United States and India, about the common interest of young people in a global world for education and the tools of international communication, and the unique value of exchanges for increasing the bonds of friendship, partnership, and understanding between our people.

Our countries, the United States and India, have many important things in common.  We are both great democracies.  We each have highly diverse populations.  Our economic destinies are increasingly linked -- American companies like IBM, Intel, and General Electric have planted roots here, and   India’s giant Infosys has 16 offices in the United States.  We also share many of the same values -- especially a respect for knowledge and a belief that education is the best vehicle for individual advancement and social progress.

We believe, as you do, that access to quality education is a fundamental requirement that can unleash the talents and the ambitions of all our people in today’s global economy. A better-educated workforce with international skills can attract increased investment and create new jobs.  It can also strengthen democracy and civil society, and broaden our access to the world.

I have been traveling to meet with students just like you from all parts of the globe – this is really the favorite part of my job – and I am hearing the same messages from young people everywhere I go.  From Argentina to Azerbaijan, from Brazil to the Philippines, Indonesia and the Persian Gulf, young people are telling me they want to be connected, and communicating, plugged into the wider world, and building a better future for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Many are striving to learn English, recognizing the value in communicating through a global language, of having access to more information, of being empowered with more choices.  We are working hard to help those students who want to learn English have access to quality English language instruction – at school, in their communities, and soon we hope, over the Internet.  This is a passion of mine and I have been working with the private sector to develop an interactive, multimedia Online English learning tool that would be the first of its kind.

I also hear from students like you that while computers, commerce, and media are linking our world, there is still no replacement for actually being there – living someplace new, making new friends, and learning the rhythms of life in that place.  Academic study abroad makes this connection possible.  We know that exchanging students and faculty means that campuses are enriched with new scholarship, perspectives, and innovative approaches to learning.

In my meetings with corporate leaders, I have carried this message forward.  These industry captains and I share a common commitment to quality education for human capital development – we know that global communication skills and international understanding are essential preparation for students to succeed as they enter the job market of tomorrow. 

I have a deep personal and professional belief that education does not stop at national borders or at the coastline.   I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran.  I was one of the 100,000 international students who came to the United States to study in 1974.   I was only age 17 when I left home.  I lived the challenges of learning another language and of having to take classes in another language.  I understand homesickness and all of the many adjustments, large and small, that any individual must make in order to live and study abroad.  But I was not just accepted by an American university—I was welcomed.  I embraced the tremendous diversity and openness of the United States and its system of education—and it embraced me.  It became a turning point in my life in ways I could never have foreseen.  My personal story of expanding horizons and opportunities is of course special to me, but it is not unique, nor is it new.

For students in rural villages to city centers, the opportunity to study in another a country is opening young minds to the world.

India sends more students to the United States to study than any other country in the world.  These students enrich our campuses and our communities.  In academic year 2006/07, there were 83,833 students from India studying in the United States (up 9.6% from the previous year).  Since 2001/02, India has remained the leading place of origin for students coming to the United States.

India is becoming an increasingly popular destination for American students studying abroad, and we are encouraging more Americans to experience the wonders of your country. According to the Open Doors 2007 report published by the Institute of International Education, the number of American students studying in India increased 20% over the previous year.

On July 4^th of this year, United States Ambassador David C. Mulford and Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon signed a historic new Fulbright agreement, strengthening educational exchanges between India and the United States.

Now our two governments together sponsor the Fulbright- Jawaharlal Nehru scholarship program, which provides opportunities for American students and scholars and Indian students and scholars to study and research together in each other’s countries, not only in formal educational settings at universities and colleges, but side-by-side in each other’s communities.  Because of the new full partnership of both governments in funding and governance, starting with the 2009-2010 academic year, an even greater number of Fulbright-Nehru scholarships will be available for both Americans and Indians.

Since the Fulbright Program’s inception in 1950 more than 5,000 Indian students and scholars have traveled to the U.S. under the Fulbright banner, and over 3,100 American teachers, scholars, and students have come to India.  These Fulbright alumni have forged important ties between our two countries, and they have gone on to careers of prominence in government, business, journalism, law, academe, sciences, the arts, NGOs and community leaders. U.S. and India Fulbright alumni include Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows (“Genius Awards”), prominent journalists, and leading academics. 

With the new Fulbright-Nehru agreement in place, we seek to further increase U.S.-India education cooperation by establishing the U.S.- India Higher Education Council, a center for the development of higher education institutional relations between the two countries.  The Council would a create a framework to enhance information exchange and proactively support activities to facilitate higher education collaboration and research partnerships between universities in India and in the United States.  

Everywhere I travel, I meet with Fulbright alumni to tap their insight and seek their advice.  I have been so pleased to meet a number of Indian Fulbrighters during this visit, and I am so impressed by what they and other Indian and American Fulbrighters are accomplishing in their lives and their communities. 

Given our special historical relationship, how can we best shape our future together?  I have three ideas I would like to raise, and then I want to hear from you about your ideas, your hopes, and your dreams for the future.

First, my main message to you today is: our doors are open!  We want more Indian students to study in the United States, and we are encouraging more American students to come to study in India.  Our nation offers more than 4,000 accredited institutions that continue to attract talented minds from around the world which enrich our campuses and our communities – I am certain many of those talented minds are in this room today. 

Second, we know that global challenges require global knowledge and global solutions.  We must continue to focus on environmental issues, human rights, conflict resolution and other issues that affect us both individually and collectively as nations.  Educational exchange helps us to do this in partnership and with greater understanding.

And third, we must seek to provide more opportunities for those in our societies who may be less privileged, but who are equally talented and deserving of the chance to participate in educational exchanges – young Indian and American students of enormous ability and promise who have the potential to serve their country as its future leaders.  

We have several new things we are doing in this area:

Our English Access Micro-scholarship program is providing scholarships to Indian students aged 14-18 from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their English language skills, to ensure that for these children language is not a barrier to accessing opportunities in their lives, including studying in the United States.  

And our exchanges for undergraduate students are a growing part of our menu for engagement, bringing more undergraduate Indian students to the United States for summer institutes and semester and year-long study.  

If the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs was a private foundation, we would be the third largest foundation in the U.S. after the Gates and Ford Foundations.  We have a large budget, and we have tremendous bipartisan support in Congress.  But the demand for what we do globally is tremendous.

That is why we have launched a significant initiative in the Bureau to engage and collaborate with the private sector, including corporations and foundations.  We have found that our educational, cultural and sports activities around the world are strategically aligned with the corporate social responsibility goals of the private sector. 

We have embarked on partnerships where we will shortly be co-sponsoring underserved students for our English Access Micro-scholarship program with a major multinational company with significant global operations in the Philippines.  We will shortly be sponsoring a global breast cancer awareness program with another major multinational organization focused on women’s issues. And we have had very productive meetings in the last few days here in India. 

We are also pushing our exchanges into cyber space as more and more young people are becoming connected through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.  Starting in mid-October we will launch a new web site whose vision will be to connect youth worldwide by challenging them to think, to solve and connect.  That web address is www.exchanges.state.gov.

In December we will be launching a web challenge that asks participants to submit a video and tell us how they plan to bring the world and cultures together. The winners will be invited to participate in an exchange visit to the United States.

I hope all of you will consider how we can continue our dialogue and expand our opportunities for interaction and exchange. 

Thank you again for the opportunity to be here today.  Now I would like to hear from you and answer any of your questions.