Ambassador
Ambassador's Speech
REMARKS BY AMBASSADOR E. ANTHONY WAYNE AT ALFA FOUNDATION RECEPTION
Ambassador’s Residence
December 1, 2008
It is a great pleasure to welcome the members of ALFA to my home. You are the products of many of the world's finest universities, and so you have a vitally important role to play in encouraging your country to become more involved in international educational exchange. The fact that you are here this evening suggests that you take that responsibility seriously.
In this globalized world in which we live, cross-border ties for the goal of furthering education between universities, colleges, foundations, businesses and citizens of many countries will grow more important. Educational exchanges build lasting intellectual, institutional, and personal ties that spread knowledge, enhance cross-cultural understanding, and build friendships between nations. As all of you know, study in a foreign country is a very profound experience. It's not something that can be duplicated in an online course An exchange student gains a lot in the formal coursework, but often learns far more outside the classroom. So I applaud your activities in support of exchanges and encourage you to continue working to expand avenues of dialogue and learning across national borders.
I especially encourage all of you who are graduates of US universities. I am delighted to note that Argentina has become one of the top 12 destinations in the world for U.S. students, with a 26% increase of U.S. students studying in Argentina in the most recent annual statistics. However, the new Open Doors 2008 Report from the Institute of International Education shows a continuing decline in the enrollment of Argentine students studying in the United States. There are now only 2,500 Argentine students in the United States. Given the talent of Argentine students and the high quality of educational preparation in Argentina, this number should be much higher. As graduates of U.S. universities, you are uniquely able to show the value of international education to other Argentines. I invite all of you to join with us in a partnership to increase opportunities for Argentines to study in the United States.
One way we are working to get Argentines to the United States for study is through the Fulbright program. But we need other, non-governmental players, to get involved. That's why I offer you this challenge: to identify one way that each of you can do something to expand opportunities for Argentines to study in the United States. We at the Embassy would be delighted to work with you to generate publicity, share information, and to deal with the bureaucratic hurdles of admissions and visa processing. The sixteen binational centers throughout Argentina, including ICANA here in Buenos Aires will be a part of our efforts through their tremendous contributions to English teaching and student advising. To support the binational centers in this effort, we will soon deliver more than a quarter million dollars to expand scholarships to enable students of limited economic resources to study English. This will result in hundreds of new opportunities for talented but poor students.
So, again, congratulations to ALFA on your ten years of work to strengthen ties between Argentina and other countries of the world. Let's work together to make those links even stronger in the years to come.
I am honored to be part of this effort, and I hope you will join us, in any way you can, to share the tremendous opportunity each of you has had with others.
One final remark: many of my Embassy colleagues are also alumni of the colleges and universities represented here tonight. To help you find your long-lost school chums and to strategize with them on how to get more Argentines to attend your common alma mater, I'd like to invite them to share with you quickly what schools they have degrees from. I'll start: UC Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, and Princeton. (Others chime in.)
