Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs
ECA NEWS
Home > ECA News > NEWS ARCHIVE - 2006

Remarks by Assistant Secretary of State Dina Habib Powell at the Fulbright New Century Scholars Symposium on Global Higher Education

October 24, 2006
Paris, France
Remarks as prepared for delivery

Thank you. I am honored to be here today, and to share the podium with such distinguished individuals, who throughout their careers have demonstrated a strong commitment to improving our world. The United States' cooperation with international organizations, and with the government of France and other countries, enables us to work together to support freedom and democracy around the world.

It is a special joy to be here with the outstanding U.S. Ambassador to France, Ambassador Craig Stapleton. He is the Honorary Co-President of the Franco-American Fulbright Commission, and a strong supporter of the Fulbright Program and international education. I first met Ambassador Stapleton many years ago when I worked in the White House, and I am privileged to call him a friend. He was a superb representative of the United States as the U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic, with a deep commitment to cultural and educational programs, and I was not surprised that President Bush asked him and his equally committed wife, Debbie, to continue serving our nation, now as U.S. Ambassador to France.

I would also like to thank Ambassador Louise Oliver, chief of the U.S. mission to UNESCO, for her work. She has worked hard to promote the full reintegration of the United States at UNESCO and to support UNESCO's goals in education and its other fields of activity.

I know that Ambassador Oliver looks forward to welcoming our new colleague at the State Department, Susanna Connaughton, the Executive Director of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, to a special event in November, but I hope you won't mind my introducing her to you, since she is here with us today. Ms. Connaughton is tremendously committed to and passionate about every aspect of UNESCO's work-in education, culture, science and information.

I would also like to recognize two members of the Presidentially-appointed Fulbright Board of Foreign Scholarships who are with us today, Yousif Ghafari and Jean Becker.

In September, I helped lead a delegation to Lebanon with a group of private sector leaders, including Mr. Ghafari, who is one of the most successful businessmen in the U.S. Our delegation was sent by President Bush, and we announced the creation of the U.S.-Lebanon Partnership Fund, which will focus on supporting economic opportunities and education in Lebanon, and help promote peace and prosperity in that young democracy.

Jean Becker is chief of staff to former President Bush, and she too is very committed to supporting educational exchanges. I would like to acknowledge and thank both these appointees of the President for their commitment to Fulbright and to mutual understanding.

But most importantly, I want to thank you, Director General Matsuura, for your leadership at UNESCO in so many areas. I want to commend your support for management effectiveness and accountability at UNESCO, your commitment to providing additional resources to UNESCO field operations, and your outstanding personal efforts to re-integrate the United States smoothly and effectively in UNESCO so that we could play a constructive role in this critically important organization.

We appreciate UNESCO's hospitality today in hosting the Fulbright New Century Scholars Program in this august institution, that is also devoted to mutual understanding. The New Century Scholars Program brings together leading scholars from around the world to conduct collaborative research on a topic of global importance -this year, higher education. I want to thank the Council for International Exchange of Scholars for their partnership with us on this program. We will be hearing later this morning about the scholars' important research and findings.

And I want to say thank you to the current group of Fulbright New Century Scholars here this morning, for the inspiration you provided and the results you have produced. But before we hear from these distinguished scholars, I'm pleased to make an announcement. Based on the response to the topic of higher education, and the work of this year's Scholars, I am delighted to announce here at UNESCO that we plan to support a second year of study of higher education issues, by a new group of Fulbright Scholars who will build on the work of this year's outstanding group.

Next year's Scholars will focus specifically on access and equity in higher education, topics that are critical for our young people in the twenty-first century.

As the First Lady said three years ago, "Literacy and liberty are natural allies, and they're the core mission of UNESCO." The First Lady believes that UNESCO's role in promoting a more peaceful world is more important today than ever before.

Since I became Assistant Secretary a year and a half ago, I have had the privilege of making a few trips to Europe. Last November, I traveled to the lovely city of Toledo in Spain for a critically important Fulbright meeting to plan how we would reach new, diverse audiences through the Fulbright Program.

This week, we are holding the biennial regional conference of European Fulbright commission directors, as well as the closing plenary of the Fulbright New Century Scholars program here at UNESCO. I was privileged yesterday to address the European commission directors, and I am pleased to see them here today. The Fulbright Program is built on a model of partnership, and so I am deeply aware of the importance of communication and working together with other governments, private organizations and individual citizens around the world to achieve shared goals.

I would like to share with you a story I told at our Toledo Fulbright meeting last year, about the power of exchanges. The Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau at the State Department sponsors the International Visitor Leadership Program, which has brought over 250 current and former heads of government to our country on exchanges. Many years ago, a prominent young Egyptian leader came to the United States on this program. He was very honest about his anxieties about visiting the U.S., but he decided to make the trip, and during his time in our country, he learned about our values as a democracy and our respect for diversity.

At the end of the exchange program, the group was invited to meet with then-President Lyndon Johnson for a discussion in the Oval Office, and the young Egyptian leader told the President and other U.S. officials how his views of our country had been transformed based on his first-hand experience. He said that when he returned to Cairo, he would talk about the principles of diversity and inclusion that he witnessed in the U.S. And they replied, "We are very glad to hear that, Mr. Sadat."

In the case of Anwar Sadat, as with so many others, an exchange transformed one individual, and thus transformed the entire world.

As a member of the U.S. national commission for UNESCO, and as a U.S. government official, I am proud to tell you that the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department, which I have the privilege to lead, has a mission similar to UNESCO's. Our Bureau's mission is to promote mutual understanding and respect between peoples.

Our Bureau funds a large program of educational and cultural exchanges with over 150 countries around the world, including 6,000 Fulbright scholarships.

Like UNESCO's work, these programs have never been more important than they are today, as we confront the forces of extremism and violence around the world. The past five years, since the terrorist attacks in the United States of September 2001, have been challenging times for our country and for the world. Tragically, the citizens of many other nations-including Spain, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, and others-have also experienced unspeakable violence in recent years. We have learned very painfully that no nation is immune to the effects of extremism.

That is why UNESCO's work is so vital. UNESCO was created after World War II, out of the belief that education, respect and tolerance are the keys to attaining peace and security for all nations and all peoples. UNESCO's founders believed that World War II resulted from the denial of the democratic principles of dignity, equality and mutual respect. Today, sixty years later, we continue to recognize the truth of that belief. Many innocent people have lost their lives, and the principles of human dignity have been greatly threatened, by ideologies of hate, extremism and violence. Working towards the goals represented by UNESCO's mission has never been more essential.

These programs increase knowledge, reduce misinformation and stereotypes, and give people first hand understanding of their fellow citizens, societies and cultures. They also provide the tools for productive cooperative efforts. The U.S. recently worked within UNESCO and the OECD to develop guidelines for quality provision in cross border higher education, helping to share information and build capacity to promote international educational exchanges.

Having access to good quality higher education is important for people of all nations. Colleges and universities train the teachers of all our children; and they are also a major driver in innovation. Higher education can offer lifelong learning to citizens so they continue acquiring skills and knowledge throughout their careers. Throughout the world, scholars have traditionally traveled and welcomed exchanges with other countries, thus enriching their societies as a whole.

In recognition of the importance of higher education, last January of this year, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings co-hosted a summit in Washington of over 120 American college and university presidents.

These U.S. college and university presidents told us how important it was to build strong cooperation in science and technology fields between the U.S. and other countries. So we decided to create a new International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, which will bring outstanding international students to our country to study for Ph.D.'s in science and technology. We will announce the winners very soon.

As is well known at UNESCO, education opens the door to economic, social and political freedom. Stable and prosperous societies are built on strong education systems that allow every citizen to fulfill his or her own potential. This starts with the ability to read and write.

Just last month, First Lady Laura Bush hosted a global conference on literacy in New York, and she was very pleased to partner with UNESCO in that effort. The President participated, as did Secretary Rice, Secretary Spellings, and, of course, Director-General Matsuura. Thirty-two spouses of world leaders, 41 ministers of education from around the world, and numerous other experts also took part.

At the conference, the head of a literacy program in Mali, Ms. Maria Diara Keita, spoke about the impact of literacy on a teenage girl, Fatumarta. This young woman learned to read and also learned about her human rights. She became a teacher, and is able to support her mother, who has now learned to read as well. Her younger brother and sister go to school and are excellent students. The whole community has been positively affected by the example of Fatumarta and her family.

This young woman lives out the quote by the renowned poet Hafiz Ibrahim, that "when you educate a woman, you educate a great nation." As you can imagine, I believe very strongly that we must continue to give high priority to the education of girls and women around the world.

During the literacy conference, Mrs. Bush announced that the United States would contribute $1 million to the Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP), a UNESCO initiative to improve the accuracy of global data on literacy. UNESCO will also host a series of regional literacy conferences to build on the results of the September conference in New York. I want to thank UNESCO for its sustained support in this important area.

Together with education, another focus we share with UNESCO is the promotion and preservation of culture. We in the United States are proud of our cultural diversity and believe that culture is a vital tool to reach people around the world. We also believe in free and open artistic and cultural expression.

Last month, not long after the First Lady sponsored the Literacy Conference, she launched our new Global Cultural Initiative, which will leverage the resources of the private sector and the cultural arts community in the United States, to develop lasting institutional collaboration on cultural programs in many arts disciplines with partners around the world.

A marvelous example of the power and reach of arts programming is the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Tours. Following the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina last year, the State Department sent the Preservation Hall Jazz Band on a tour to several countries whose citizens helped the people of the United States, to showcase their unique musical talents, support the musicians of New Orleans, and thank people around the world for their generosity to Americans at a time of need. Many countries offered assistance to the U.S. after the hurricane.

During their visit to France, the group performed at the Maison de la Culture here in Paris-an event hosted by our Ambassador and the French Ministry of Culture-and at the City Hall in Orleans.

At their Paris performance, Ambassador Stapleton highlighted the cultural and historical bonds between the United States and France and recalled that we have stood by each other at times of great hardship. The audience for this performance included people who were working to help displaced musicians from New Orleans and a group of French divers who had participated in rescue efforts in Louisiana.

The arts create common understanding that transcends language and borders. Music is especially effective in this role and speaks very powerfully to young people. Since one of our primary goals is to reach young people internationally, what better way to do this, we thought, than through an exchange in music?

So I am absolutely delighted today to announce, here at UNESCO, the creation of a new international exchange, the Fusion Arts Exchange, that will allow young people from different countries to learn about, compose and perform popular music together. We will bring university students from countries with especially rich musical traditions-such India, South Africa, Mali, Brazil, and Ireland just to name a few-with American students, to study and work together at a U.S. university with a world-renowned music study program and facilities. They will look at international and U.S. musical traditions and composition, learn about careers and economic development opportunities for their societies in music-related fields, and have the chance to compose and perform together and develop on-going collaborations.

Young people are the leaders of tomorrow, and they need to have knowledge of the world and a commitment to international understanding and service. A model for them will be Fulbright alumnus Mohammad Yunus of Bangladesh, selected earlier this month together with the institution he founded, the Grameen Bank, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to lift people out of poverty through micro-credit lending.

I have spoken about our efforts to achieve mutual understanding through the Fulbright Program, professional and cultural exchanges, and our new music initiative for young people. Let me now share a personal story to demonstrate my strong commitment to ensuring that diverse voices continue to have the opportunity to contribute to our societies.

As someone who came to the United States with my family from Egypt, speaking no English, I experienced the benefits of education, access and opportunity first hand. Because of my parents' commitment to education for their children, and the opportunities provided in the U.S., I was able to pursue my dreams and eventually to work at the White House and now as an Assistant Secretary of State.

I'll never forget the time I brought my parents to the White House and introduced them to President Bush, who greeted them warmly. I turned to my mother and father, expecting to see smiles on their faces, but instead I saw tears in their eyes. My parents, who had sacrificed so much for my education, could not believe that the daughter they brought to the United States so many years earlier, had been given the opportunity to serve the President of their adopted country.

I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had, and like you, I want every child in the world to have an education and the chance for a better life. That is why we are all here today. Building on our achievements in literacy and education, through partnership, we can make a difference for the future of our world.

Thank you.

Back to the top