Developing 21st-Century Skills for Global Citizenship
In 2022, we advanced the global citizenship of 21,600 young men and women by:
- Partnering with Rise, an initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, to conduct a global search for talented youth ages 15–17 committed to using their talents to build a better world and help their communities, culminating with the selection of seven young men and women from Egypt, Lebanon, Tunisia, and the West Bank who were among the Rise program’s 100 Global Winners for 2022.
- Providing 271 MENA and four American teenagers selected for the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) and YES Abroad programs with a life-changing opportunity to develop global awareness and language and other skills that will position them to engage globally.
- Providing support to 236 master’s degree and research students in their two-year programs at U.S. higher educational institutions through the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, and placing 209 Fulbright nominees from Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, the UAE, and the West Bank and Gaza in programs beginning in the 2023–24 academic year.
- Enriching the educational journeys of 1,163 young learners through our STEM-focused programs in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, the West Bank and Gaza, and the UAE, raising their awareness of STEM careers and technology’s potential to solve problems, while encouraging them to explore, innovate, and develop critical-thinking skills so they can contribute to finding sustainable and equitable solutions to the climate crisis and other global challenges.
- Advancing Arabic and French language proficiency and deepening knowledge of the MENA region and the Global South among 145 American high school and college students enrolled in our Education Abroad Programs in the MENA through in-region study and virtual programming.
- Enabling 14,600 boys and girls through our English for Young Learners courses to get an early start in mastering a language that opens doors to education and career opportunities.
We are grateful to the U.S. Department of State, the Boeing Company, Schmidt Futures, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, the Palestinian Student Fund, U.S. embassies throughout the MENA region, and other partners for making our work in this area possible.
