The number of students participating in Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Scholarship Program has skyrocketed over the past decade from around 2,000 students in 2002 to over 80,000 today, comments former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia James B. Smith.
In a recent FocusKSA (a joint Saudi-US Trade Group/SUSRIS.com initiative) interview with Pat Ryan, SUSRIS Editor-in-Chief, former U.S. Ambassador Smith discussed the King Abdullah Scholarship Program and the significant impact that it will have on future generations of Saudis.
“About 10,000 Saudi students graduated this year, and we had 3,000” at the SACM Career Fair and Graduation Ceremony at the Gaylord Hotel in Washington D.C., an event to honor graduates of the program, Smith said. “It was an amazing event full of energy, positive young people, parents that were there proud of what their students have accomplished…it was a seminal event for me to witness just how positive this effort has become.”
Smith, who served as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia from September 2009 to September 2013, stepped down from the post last year, and was succeeded by Joseph Westphal this summer.
In the interview, Smith noted that the program – one of King Abdullah’s most visible efforts to open Saudi Arabia up to the world, is merit-based and “developed that way so it is not populated by students whose parents have influence, its populated by students who have grades,” Smith said.
