University Communications and Marketing

MSU Billings welcomes U.S. Department of State Global UGRAD-Pakistan student

MSUB selected to participate for second consecutive semester

University Communications and Marketing, 657-2266

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES —Montana State University Billings is pleased to welcome a new international student, Muhammad, to campus as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Global Undergraduate Exchange Program in Pakistan (Global UGRAD-Pakistan). Muhammad joined the Yellowjacket family this fall. He will study Political Science for one semester before returning to his hometown of Chiniot, Pakistan in the state of Punjab.

The Global UGRAD-Pakistan program, which places participants at U.S. colleges and universities for academic study, is part of a broader U.S. Department of State effort to promote better understanding of the United States abroad, particularly among future world leaders. This is the second consecutive semester that MSU Billings was selected to participate in the Global UGRAD-Pakistan program. It is an opportunity for participating students, like Muhammad, to learn first-hand about both their home country and the United States, taking their new knowledge home with them.

“Students in this program are outstanding and bright students who achieve academically and are  involved in their community,” shared Neil Beyer, international marketing and outreach specialist. “Muhammad is a bright student who has impressed us greatly as he is wise beyond his years, is making contributions here and is impacting us as much as we are shaping his life.”

Since the program’s inception in 2010, Global UGRAD-Pakistan has provided more than 1,500 talented, highly-motivated undergraduate students from underserved populations across Pakistan with the opportunity to study at a U.S. college or university.

Through semester-long academic study, exploration of U.S. culture, participation in community service projects, and interactions with Americans in their host communities and campuses, Global UGRAD-Pakistan participants develop expertise in their academic fields, gain a broad and nuanced understanding of American culture and values, and go on to share this understanding of the United States with their communities when they return home. Over the past eight years, participants have volunteered over 32,000 hours with community organizations across the United States.

Global UGRAD-Pakistan participants enrich the lives of the Americans they meet by sharing their unique viewpoints and backgrounds and bringing a global perspective to their host communities. These ties endure, with over 95 percent of program alumni maintaining relationships with Americans they met while in the United States.

According to the Global UGRAD-Pakistan team, the program is a “tremendous benefit to campus: it brings diversity and new perspectives to the classroom, and provides students with the chance to make lasting relationships that span across the globe, and catalyzes global engagement in the local community.”

International students give our Montana students exposure to a new world, specifically in this region of the Middle East. It shows MSU Billings students, faculty, and staff that people everywhere are good, kind people and this program removes some of the barriers we see here in Montana, Beyer added.

Global UGRAD-Pakistan is a program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) with funding provided by the U.S. Government. The program is administered by IREX.