Remarks by Ambassador Richard Jones
Israeli-Arab Scholarship Program's Fifteenth Anniversary
January 31, 2007 at 19:30
I am pleased to welcome you this evening to celebrate 15 years of the Israeli-Arab Scholarship Program (IASP).
The Israeli-Arab Scholarship Program was established by the United States Congress in 1991 for the purpose of providing Israeli-Arab students with educational opportunities to pursue graduate study at American universities.
Scholarships are offered to outstanding students in a variety of fields with grantees chosen on a competitive basis from dozens of applicants. The basis for selection is academic excellence and the promise of further achievement. Upon their return to Israel, after periods of study of two years or sometimes longer, it is hoped that these scholarship grantees will be equipped to participate effectively in the rigorous academic and professional environment that characterizes the world of learning in Israel.
The Israeli-Arab Scholarship Program complements the Fulbright scholarship and academic exchange programs which have been conducted in Israel for the past 50 years under the auspices of the United States-Israel Educational Foundation (USIEF).
From 1991 until 2006, representatives of the U.S. Government (which handles selection, nomination, and coordination) and AMIDEAST (which takes care of university placement and administrative support) have worked together to bring nearly 60 Israeli-Arab Scholarship Program grantees to American universities for graduate study.
The men and women who have received this prestigious scholarship are some of Israel's finest Arab scholars and professionals. I'm happy to say that some of them are with us tonight.
They studied at some of the most prestigious American universities such as M.I.T., Georgetown, George Washington University, Columbia, and Harvard, and in such varied areas as law, computer science, education, applied linguistics, psychology, public administration, and business. They are now making contributions as lecturers at Tel Aviv University, researchers at Hebrew University, and private practitioners in their fields of expertise in Haifa, Acco, and Nazareth.
I can only say that I am proud that the American Embassy in Tel Aviv is associated with programs which encourage and foster cultural and intellectual ties between the people of the United States and citizens of the State of Israel.
As we gather to celebrate 15 years of the program, I want to express my hearty congratulations to the scholarship alumni on their achievements.
Dr. Michael Karayanni was the first student to receive an IASP scholarship in January 1992. He studied for his LL.M. at George Washington University, and is currently the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law at Hebrew University.
I now invite Dr. Karayanni to say a few words in the name of the IASP Alumni Association. He will be followed by Dr. Fadia Nasser, a Lecturer at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Nasser studied at University of Georgia on an IASP scholarship.
