Network Your Way to the USA: Join the Network of Yemeni Scholars

A number of Yemeni exchange participants have provided us with useful advice and guidance about how to be a successful exchange participant and how to prepare applications for scholarships and interviews. These individuals are just a few of the many Yemeni students studying around the world today. According to the Ministry of Higher Education, Yemeni students are studying in countries like India, Malaysia, Germany, Canada, the UK, and the US.

 
Waleed Mahdi, a doctoral student and MacArthur Fellow at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities who first traveled to the U.S. on a Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship, has started his own networking website to help link Yemeni students and scholars studying outside of Yemen. Through his English website, the Network of Yemeni Scholars (http://www.yemenischolars.com/), Waleed and his colleagues are contributing to bridging cultural misunderstandings and assisting Yemeni students around the world who wish to partake in that endeavor as well.

 
As is common in Yemen, Waleed learned about different opportunities by talking and networking with others. “My primary plans to travel to India like many of my university colleagues were altered when I had the opportunity to meet a returning Yemeni Fulbright scholar, who oriented me about the U.S. Department of State Fulbright Foreign Student Scholarship Program. This scholar encouraged me to apply once, and, if not selected, to apply twice and thrice, as many times as necessary. The reasoning behind this sort of persistence was beyond my understanding at the time. It was not until I arrived in the United States that I realized how important and prestigious the Fulbright scholarship is . . . One of the important experiences on the Fulbright Program for me was at one of the workshops that brought together Fulbright students from all around the Middle East and North Africa. Their backgrounds and diversity in ethnicity, geopolitics, and fields of scholarship were striking . . . I was amazed to be a part of a program that seeks to transcend the politics of division and conflict to those of unity and harmony.” Indeed, according to Wikipedia, the Fulbright Program has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other international exchange program. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulbright_Scholar. One of the most famous dual Fulbright and Nobel awardees is Dr. Mohammed Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank.

 
Waleed seeks to continue the Fulbright mission and activities, saying: “There are two factors that prompted me to start the Network of Yemeni Scholars (NYS). First, I have learned, in the United States, that electronic networking is an important twenty-first century tool of communication. Second, there is an obvious lack of connection among Yemeni professors, current graduates, and aspiring undergraduates. NYS, I believe, would be a modest attempt to establish such a connection.”

 
One member of NYS is Farooq Al Tamimi, who is also a Fulbright program alumnus and is currently pursuing a doctoral program in education at Indiana State University. According to Farooq, “It can be very hard to get to see, know about, and even meet and talk to and learn from a group of people who . . . represent education in Yemen. The NYS is a place where you can find the opportunity to talk to such a group of people. Waleed did a great job in putting the foundation stone for such a good e-community of Yemeni scholars.”

 
The NYS is still fairly new and Farooq like other NYS participants would like to see “others especially those who already registered and are members be more active for the website to be more fruitful and productive. For example, they should log on to it more often, tell others about it, and put some of their work and expertise in there too.”

 
Waleed concludes about NYS: “I believe this would be a good tool for Yemenis who are seeking international education opportunities to utilize. They can set up their own profiles and network with other Yemeni students abroad. All Yemeni scholars and researchers, ranging from the highest academic pursuit to bachelor degree holders are encouraged to use the forum to keep in touch. I am happy to invite any Yemeni scholars who email me through the website.”

 
Keep in mind that this isn’t open only to students already living abroad but also students thinking about going to the U.S. and other countries. And, it is a good idea to talk to people who have studied outside before. Current Fulbright grantee Hamid Al-Thairi (Oakland University, Linguistics) notes: “Before I went to the U.S., I actually used to ask my friends who travelled there about what they wished that they had known before they went, so that I would not have regrets . . . Until now I still keep calling my best friend and ask his valuable advice . . . I think it is very important that Fulbrighters of a certain country SHOULD be connected to each other to provide guidance and consultation to each other.”

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