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[Conclusion of the impromptu talk “New
educational programs strengthen special RP-US bonds” given by US
Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs
Goli Ameri at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila on July 7,
2008.In the first part, Asst. Sec. Goli Ameri reviewed the happy
history of Philippine-American educational exchanges.]
Second of two parts
Given our wonderful, historical relationship,
how can we further forge our future together? My bureau, the Bureau
of Educational and Cultural Affairs, has three ideas that we’ve
come up with, but what I really want to do, after I give you our
ideas, is to hear from you and for you to share some of your
thoughts and your experiences with us.
First and foremost, the message
that I want to send loud and clear to everyone is that America’s
doors are open. We want students from all over the world,
particularly from the Philippines, to come to the United States, to
study in the United States, and to give a taste of your rich and
wonderful culture to American students. The 4,000 institutions in
the United States are thirsty for people of your culture and your
background to go there and to study.
Secondly, as we all know, global
challenges require not just global solutions, but also local
solutions. We must all focus—and I don’t need to tell you this
because judging by the caliber of students at this university you
all already know this—we must focus on important global issues
like human rights, conflict resolution, environmental issues and
terrorism and national security. As you know these issues do not
just affect us personally, but they affect us as a nation. And we
believe that educational exchanges help us resolve these issues in
partnership. When we bring people together it creates synergy. And
two brains, especially two diverse brains, always work better than
one. We always come up with various solutions when we try to solve
problems with people from diverse and unique backgrounds.
Thirdly, something that’s very
important to my bureau, is that we want to try to provide
opportunities for the less privileged, but equally talented. We want
to make sure that we reach out to those people that under normal
circumstances could not have access to a quality education, but who
are just as talented and just as hungry to have a leadership role in
their society. And because of that, we’ve embarked on several
different programs right here in the Philippines. One of them is our
English Access Micro-scholarship Program, where we provide two years
of study in English-medium schools to kids that normally would not
have access to such a program or to kids that normally would not
have access to any type of educational program. And we’re seeing a
great deal of positive feedback on this type of a program. These are
kids that are excited about their education that are interested to
go on for their higher education. And the other program that we have
right here is that we are reaching out to underserved Filipinos
who are going through their undergraduate program, to send them to
the United States for summer institutes that include leadership
training. Just this summer, right now, we have four Filipino
students that are going to California to take part in a film and
production group with their American counterparts at the University
of Southern California. And we’re really hoping that they’re
going to come back and become your top filmmakers or moviemakers.
We also have the Youth Exchange
and Study program that sends about 25 to 30 young kids to the United
States for a year after their senior year to live with an American
host family. And I’ll tell you what’s happening with these kids,
what we call “YES” kids, the YES being Youth Exchange and Study.
They go to the US. They truly change the host family that they are
living with. They change the communities that they are living with
because they go out there; they talk to churches; they talk to
community centers; they talk to the schools. And they really take a
part of your culture with them and they have a tremendous impact on
the communities in which they are a part of. And these kids get
pretty changed themselves. I had the privilege to meet with a few of
them in Washington, D.C., about a month ago. And I think now they
are ready to go on and change the world. I had lunch with a few of
them today and these are truly, truly remarkable kids. A few of them
are disabled kids, one of them is a blind young girl who spent a
year in the United States and she’s studying computer science now
right here at one of your top universities. It’s really
phenomenal. It was a truly unique experience for me to be able to
spend some time with these wonderful “YES” people.
We have the global undergraduate
program where we bring undergraduates just like yourself to the
United States for a semester or one year of study. These kids do a
lot of community service. They do a lot of volunteer work in
America, which is one of the things I learned when I first went
there. It’s one friendly community-oriented country, the United
States. It’s all about giving back. Kids from the age of four are
learning, from pre-school to kindergarten, about how to give back to
their communities, how to help out their communities. So, these
students are becoming increasingly active in this. And they also go
through internships as well.
So these are some of the things
that we’re doing right here in the Philippines. I would like to
ask you to help us continue our dialogue, to help us figure out how
we can do even more things right here in the Philippines. We’d
love to hear from you. I thank you for this amazing opportunity to
be here to be able to speak with you, and I would love to be able to
answer questions and continue this in a dialogue basis. Thank you so
much.
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