AMBASSADOR BLOME: Thank you very much. Good evening and congratulations to everybody in this room for their academic achievements that got them there! And for their parents who supported getting them there all the way, I’m sure. Please help me thank Kathy Aziz and her team from EducationUSA and the U.S. Educational Foundation in Pakistan for all their hard work in making this ceremony happen.
Let me start by asking a question: Why are you here? As the name of the event indicates, your schools nominated you as especially high achieving students. You’ve already had tremendous academic success and now, as you start thinking about your next steps to apply for universities, I’m sure that you are poised for even greater achievements. And of course, some of you may have been dreaming about attending a university for many years.
And why am I here? Because today marks the beginning of International Education Week, where we celebrate Pakistani students who study in the United States, as well as our many years of partnerships with Pakistani and American universities. And with your strong academic credentials, I hope that you consider U.S. colleges and universities for the next stage of your academic journey.
As Kathy mentioned, our U.S. universities are constantly looking for international students because they are essential to our academic cultures. They bring diverse ideas and experiences, contribute to a vibrant campus life, and collaborate on research that will solve the biggest challenges the planet faces. And after graduation, you can take the knowledge you’ve gained, the friendships you’ve made, and the innovative projects you’ve worked on back to Pakistan and become a leader to build better communities where you are.
On the topic of studying in the United States, I have some exciting news to report, and you are the very first in Pakistan to hear this. Every year during International Education Week, the State Department releases the Open Doors Report, which shows how many students from around the world are studying in the United States.
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For the 2022 to 2023 academic year, 10,000 Pakistani students went to the U.S. for undergraduate, graduate, and nondegree study. That’s the highest number we’ve ever recorded, and it put Pakistan in 16th place in the world among countries that sent students to the United States.
Well, I am excited to announce that for the 2023 to 2024 academic year, 11,000 Pakistani students attended U.S. universities, and it’s 15th highest in the world and it’s set a new record for Pakistan.
Around one third of those students are pursuing a bachelor’s degree, and next year, I hope that some or all of you will join them.
If you’d like to find out about opportunities to study in the United States, the best place to be is right here in this room. EducationUSA is the official source for getting free advice, the best kind of advice, about how to choose the right college or university, how to search for scholarships, and how to write a winning application. I encourage you to seek out one of the EducationUSA advisors and start a conversation about those things right away!
Actually, I wish I had EducationUSA when I was helping my kids fill out their college application forms the last few years. I had to figure it out myself but you guys have EducationUSA, it’s very exciting.
It’s also important to thank your parents, your parents who are here tonight, I already did that once but you can’t do it too many times. They provide the essential support throughout your academic career. And my guess is that the majority of you are here because of the encouragement that you’ve had from your parents all your lives to pursue your education.. I’d like to ask all the students here to stand up and give your families a big round of applause to thank them for their support.
As a parent of three, one still in college, applauding for myself as well. And although the thought of traveling halfway around the world to attend university might be intimidating a little bit, I hope that you are inspired by the thousands of Pakistani students who have done just that, and they’ve returned to Pakistan to be leaders in science, technology, education, business, government, every sector in Pakistan and I run into them every single day. The people I work with and deal with, an enormous percentage of them have U.S. based higher education.
So finally, we have a group of outstanding school counselors here, some of whom will be receiving awards in the next few minutes. All of you are also key to the success of your students. I understand that some of you have recently been to the United States to learn more about our colleges and universities. With over 4,000 higher education institutions, I know that the process of selecting a U.S. university can be daunting, and I commend you for your efforts to learn more about our system so that you can share that knowledge with your students.
I’m proud to announce that this year, the U.S. Embassy will support an additional cohort of counselors to travel to the United States to familiarize themselves with our universities and help students make well-informed choices.
School counselors don’t get enough rounds of applause, so that’s good. As you are deciding on your college plans, filling out applications, searching for scholarships, and thinking about future careers, I do reiterate that I hope you keep the United States in mind. Congratulations to all of you for how far you’ve come. We’re all inspired by your ambition and your optimism and we look forward to having you to the United States at some point! So thank you very much!
