WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with 12 students from the Peshawar Army Public School, Pakistan. The students are in the U.S. to participate in the U.S.-Pakistan Global Leadership and STEM Program – a program which was developed and is being implemented by Meridian International Center, with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and in partnership with SUNY Polytechnic’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE).
During their visit with Secretary Kerry, the students were joined by Meridian’s President Ambassador Stuart Holliday, Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Dan Feldman, and Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States Jalil Abbas Jilani.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry greeted the Pakistani students at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on July 27, 2015.
Students from Peshawar Army Public School have been invited to the United States by an American think-tank.
The group comprising of 12 children and teachers later visited a number of important places in Washington and has met with U.S. children and officers.
Pakistani students, teachers and a military liaison accompanying the students, attended a five-day Nanodiscovery Institute facilitated by CNSE professors and faculty in Albany, New York. Where they created business plans as part of a Nanoeconomics course designed by CNSE staff members, and would participate in nanotechnology career briefings.
While in Washington, D.C., the students remained engaged in a global leadership skills training program and attended a special luncheon meeting hosted by Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States Jalil Abbas Jilani.
In New York, Pakistan youths are scheduled to meet with Brigadier General John Thomson, American Commandant of West Point, with a view to learning about the principles and importance of military leadership.
To further encourage cross-cultural understanding, the visiting students from the Peshawar Army Public School are joined by four American high school students with similar academic interests.
On July 31, 2015 the Pakistani students visited the most famous Capitol Hill, Building which is the Home of U.S House of Representatives and the U.S Senate.
Commenting on their visit to a Voice of America (VOA) reporter the children lauded the hospitality of American people and official. A student noted that there was no much difference between United State and Pakistan. Another student said that he found the people of U.S friendlier than he had assumed earlier.
Think-tank Meridian International Centre sponsored the Pakistani school children who suffered the most tragic trauma in December last year when Terrorist had killed more than 140 children.
The think-tank, Meridianc International Centre has custom-tailored the U.S.-Pakistan Global Leadership and STEM Program’s curriculum to blend the study of global leadership with an immersive Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education immersion component. -PPA