In early September the Afghan Scholars Initiative welcomed our second pair of scholars to the U.S. Naimat and Sharaf will attend Oregon Episcopal School and The Hotchkiss School respectively. Both students are from Kabul and were refugees in Pakistan during the reign of the Taliban regime.
The process of preparing these students to arrive in the U.S. is a reminder of how much work is required by all parties – the students, ASI staff, and the sponsor schools – in order to make this opportunity possible. The preparations run the gamut from shepherding the students through the visa process, completing enrollment paperwork and financial obligations, making affordable travel arrangements, planning the details of the students’ first days in the U.S., and procuring many of the basic items that the students will need for life and work in a boarding school. This summer volunteers John Campbell and Lauren Pongan have worked tirelessly to tutor Naimat and Sharaf, helping them to improve their English writing skills using the video-conferencing program Skype. In Kabul, the Aga Khan Foundation has generously provided the students with internet access and printers to assist in their preparation to matriculate at U.S. college-preparatory schools. While ASI’s non-profit status was still pending this summer, staff and friends of ASI generously used their personal credit cards to pay for visa fees and other expenses.
In January of this year, ASI co-founder and Vice President Qiam Amiry traveled to Kabul to coordinate the testing and selection process that resulted in Naimat and Sharaf’s selection. Qiam oversaw the selection of Naimat and Sharaf from a group of over 140 qualified students. Candidates for the ASI program must be relatively fluent in both written and spoken English, have completed 10th grade, display self-motivation, and demonstrate the maturity required to make good use of the opportunity to study in the U.S. It is also important to ensure that the families of prospective ASI scholars are comfortable with their child traveling to the US. This past January two families did not allow their daughters, who were very motivated and talented, to accept the scholarship. Due to the widespread interest created by the opportunity to study in the U.S., ASI continues to revise and improve our selection process to ensure that it serves the ASI mission and results in the selection of the most qualified and prepared applicants.
We will share more about Naimat and Sharaf in a future newsletter once they have settled in to their new schools.