Former U.S. Ambassadors to Argentina
Ambassador Wayne's Speech
AMBASSADOR WAYNE REMARKS AT HARVARD CLUB RECEPTION
December 3, 2007
First of all, I would like to give a warm welcome to all of my fellow alumni and their spouses. It’s great to see you, and I’m very glad you could be here tonight. I especially want to acknowledge new Harvard Club president Juan Bosch, whose idea it was to hold the Club’s year-end event here at, appropriately enough, the Bosch Palace. Welcome Juan, or should I say welcome home.
We were all fortunate enough at one time in our lives to attend Harvard. The experience for all of us I’m sure was indelible and enriching. As an international student, you had the challenge of mastering a new language and culture, but the opportunity to tell Americans about your own culture, and when you returned to Argentina, to tell your countrymen about your US experience.
In my view, there are few things as valuable as living in another country and getting to know people as individuals - learning what we have in common, while allowing ourselves to be enriched by our differences. It builds lasting bridges across boundaries both real and imagined. And it creates the kinds of personal connections that help keep bilateral relations vibrant and healthy over the long term.
The rewards of international education are indeed incalculable. But with those rewards comes, I think, a corresponding responsibility to ensure that others enjoy the same opportunity.
On that front here in Argentina, we have some work yet to do. While I’m very pleased to report that US students are coming here in ever-greater numbers, the new Open Doors 2007 Report on student flows from Argentina into the US shows a disturbing trend. Over the last 2 years, there has been a decline in Argentine student enrollment in US universities of around 17%, (with total numbers falling to 2,800 Argentine students enrolled). This compares with Mexico, which has 14,000 students in U.S. universities; Brazil, 7,000; Colombia, 6,700; Venezuela, 4,500; and Peru, 3,700. Not to mention South Korea, a country with 48 million people, but which has 62,000 students in the US, more than all the Latin American countries I just mentioned combined.
Clearly we want to reverse this trend, to encourage more Argentines to study in the US, both for the good education offered and for the positive impact on keeping the bilateral relationship vibrant and healthy.
One way we are working to get Argentines to the U.S. for study is through the Fulbright program. But we need other, non-governmental players, to get involved. And we need ideas too, so I leave you today with this request: if you have suggestions about areas where we can work together to expand educational opportunities for Argentines, please share them with us. We are proud to collaborate with you on this important effort.
With that, I will stop and turn the floor over to President Juan Bosch.
