Posts in Spotlight Alumni
Fulbright alumna strives for an inclusive community for differently abled persons

On Friday, May 4, 2018, Fulbright alumna Tayyaba Azeem, founder of SpeakUp!, organized a coaching session for Differently Abled Persons (DAP) with the support of USEFP at its Karachi premises. The session was attended by DAPs from different educational backgrounds and interests and facilitated by a fully-trained sign language interpreter from ConnectHear.

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Fulbright Alumnus Trains Pakistani Students in Design Thinking

In developing societies like Pakistan, where innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit is slowly finding roots thanks to incubators like Plan 9i2iWeCreate, and spaces at top universities like LUMS and NUST, people are embracing a variety of problem solving techniques to help address local community problems. According to Fulbright alumnus, Ahsaan Rizvi, one way to identify opportunities for intervention, and to develop possible solutions, is to train young minds in design thinking, specifically, human centered design thinking – a creative approach to problem solving, which according to IDEO dot org, “starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with new solutions that are tailor made to suit their needs.”

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Spotlight Alumni: Madiha Nasrullah

My Amazon wish list Just. Got. BIGGER! But who’s to blame for my empty wallet? (Because let’s face it, it’s going to get empty once I start scrolling through Amazon’s Sephora page). And if you’re anything like me, for whom an online deal makes your heart pound and hands sweat in excitement, you’ll want to love to hate the person responsible for making all your online shopping dreams come true. You’ll have none other than Fulbrighter Madiha Nasrullah to blame. This young, Lahore based entrepreneur is about to launch Nazdeeq, an online shopping portal that intends to give its audience, easy, reliable and creative access to a wide variety of global brands. In other words, it’s shopping at your fingertips, in a country where products bought on one of the world’s largest online portals has yet to deliver to Pakistani doorsteps.

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Fulbright Spotlight Alumni: Muhammad Anwar Ul Haq

Muhammad Anwar Ul Haq is being recognized both locally and internationally for his contribution to Pakistan’s energy sector. Most recently, he received the inaugural Young Development Leader Award from the Ministry of Planning, Development and Reforms for his performance in the field of energy, which is critical to the realization of the Vision 2025 goals – a road map detailing Pakistan’s socio-economic development strategy. Earlier this year, he was also selected to the World Energy Council’s prestigious Future Energy Leaders program. Anwar graduated with a Master’s in Engineering Management from Duke University on a Fulbright scholarship. He is a partner and head of renewables practice at Aequitas, a financial advisory and energy project development firm in Pakistan. With this kind of success, it’s no wonder we want to learn more about his Fulbright journey. Here’s what he had to say.

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Fulbright Scholar Heading to Princeton to Study Math!

USEFP just bid adieu to another talented cohort of 15 Fulbright scholars (2016 – 2017) heading to top U.S. universities, which include Harvard Law SchoolPrinceton UniversityUC Berkeley and Harvard Medical School. Hailing from across the country, these Pakistani scholars – who all hold doctoral degrees in a variety of specializations – will undertake 12 months of invigorating lectures and or opportunities for post-doctoral research in their field of study.

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Spotlight Alumni: Sana Mahmud

Sana Mahmud is many things – soccer player and captain of Pakistan’s national Women’s Football Team, Fulbright fellow and graduate of Ohio University’s MA in International Development Studies program, and is currently working in the humanitarian sector where she addresses the needs of women during disaster situations. A relentless champion, is there anything Sana can’t do?

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Spotlight Alumni: Amina Rizwan

Amina Rizwan has the ability to bend and mold metal at will. No, she is not telekinetic (though that would be amazing!) — rather, she has the very human ability of shaping and adorning certain metals. A Lahore-based jewelry designer, Amina works as an independent artist, contemporary jeweler, and is also a contributing writer for international art and jewelry magazines. Amina’s jewelry reflects her subcontinental heritage and incorporates gemstones from across Pakistan into her designs, for what she calls a “jewelized transformation”, albeit with a contemporary, global appeal.

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