Ted Boscia/CALS

Sumair Tarar, left, and Chimi Dem, the first students to study at Cornell through the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program, meet in Mann Library.

This fall, Cornell welcomed a Pakistani bureaucrat and a Bhutanese agricultural official as its first students through the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program.

Sumair M. Tarar, who works in the revenue division of the Pakistani government, is studying for a master's in public administration through the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. Chimi Dem, who helps promote vegetable production among small farmers in Bhutan, is focusing her graduate studies on international agriculture and rural development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS).

Since 1987 the program has been awarding scholarships to graduate students pursuing degrees in economic and social development. Students who complete the program must return to their home countries and apply their education to their nation's development. International Programs, a unit within CALS, coordinated Cornell's involvement in the program.

The scholarships cover tuition, living and travel costs for scholars. Dem says crafting professional papers and leading group discussions has guided her thinking about "how to develop good approaches and strategies for rural development."

Dem applied to Cornell after an alumnus in Bhutan inspired her to do so, though she wasn't sure she would be admitted or earn a program scholarship. "I heard the World Bank scholarship was very competitive," she said. "I had very little hope of getting it."

But Dem stood out among applicants from all parts of the globe.

Like Dem, Tarar credits studying at Cornell with reshaping his thinking about development problems in his homeland. "I realized that joining public service could provide me with the opportunity to affect social change and influence policy decisions," he said.

"Being a student at Cornell is a great experience," Tarar said. "This is an institution where every professor is an education in himself. Each one is a center of excellence."

He also values the interaction among cultures that the program fosters.

"There are 25-30 nations [represented] in one of my classes here," Tarar observed. "In one day, I am talking to a Kazakh, a Costa Rican, a student from North China. You learn how another person thinks and how their feelings are shaped by their culture. When you watch the news on the television, you do not get to know how or why. When you are talking to a person from these places, you can ask them how it was."

Marissa Fessenden '09 is a former intern with CALS Communications.