Growing up in a small town in the mountainous region of Baltistan, Pakistan Aniqa has first-hand knowledge of the many barriers to higher education . “Many secondary and junior high students do not have any one to guide them regarding what to study. They are unaware of the opportunities available and how to avail the resources around them” says Aniqa.
With funds from Project Smile, Aniqa launched a project to support students from low-income families in her hometown who face difficulty studying critical subjects such as mathematics, science and technology. She organized tuition-free classes at a local religious center and recruited tutors from Pakistan’s leading universities to mentor them. “I wanted to make sure that the teaching methods employed here will be more interactive and ensure conceptual clarity among the students” said Aniqa. She also set up an educational trivia competition and various leadership and team-building activities to encourage love of learning. Nearly 100 students from a local middle and high school participated.
For both activities, Aniqa drew significantly from her community service experience as a tutor at a local community college while she was a Global UGRAD – Pakistan [10] participant at the University of North Alabama [11]. During her time as a tutor, Aniqa discovered her passion for teaching and youth development. “As a tutor, I was interacting with youth who were struggling and working hard to make a better life for themselves. It really inspired me to do something for the youth of my own community.”
Aniqa has stayed true to her determination to support the youth in her community. As a follow-up activity, Aniqa organized a group of volunteers to host a university expo for high school students to learn about the admissions process to universities and the application process for scholarships.
After completing her undergraduate studies, Aniqa hopes to pursue a doctorate in Economics and work in the higher education sector to tackle the problem of underemployment among Pakistan’s youth – “I want to start a system where universities will develop systems to gather data and better guide their graduates to focus on academic and professional fields that are in high demand in the job market.” For now however, Aniqa is focusing on bringing change to her own hometown.
The Global Undergraduate Exchange Program in Pakistan [10] and Project Smile are programs of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of Stat [12]e and is implemented by IREX.