Mrs Jennifer Onyukwu, Director, Educational Advising Center of the U.S. embassy in Abuja, said this in an interview on the sidelines of the opening of the 13th Annual College and Career Fair in Abuja on Wednesday.
Onyukwu said that the fair, which is being held annually, had witnessed more participation of representatives of various American universities.
She said that about 60 secondary schools from Nasarawa, Jos and Abuja were participating in the 13th edition of the fair.
Onyukwu noted that the concentration of schools from the north at the fair was due to the proximity of the schools to the embassy.
``The college and career fair is meant to provide Nigerian students who want to study in the U.S. the opportunity to explore diversity and vitality of various campuses.
``Today, they would be learning about admission processes; they will be learning about scholarship opportunities; the standardised text and all the processes they need to go through in order to study in the U.S.
``Right now, we have about 30 U.S. universities represented, 20 of them are admissions people coming directly from the U.S; the other schools are represented by their alumni who studied in the U.S. and have returned to Nigeria.
``For the morning session we have over 500 students; maybe before the end of the day we will have close to 1000 students; we are looking at 1500 participants.
``For the first time in over 10 years we are getting 20 U.S. admissions people come out directly from the U.S. to recruit Nigerian students.
``I think they are witnessing a lot of interest from Nigeria and they are also seeing high quality Nigerian students on their campuses.’’
In her address, Melissa Ford, Country Public Affairs Officer of the embassy, said that Nigeria had more students in universities across the U.S. than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa.
Ford said that the annual college and career fair have contributed greatly to the increase in number of excellent Nigerian applicants to institutions in the U.S.
``Institutions of higher learning in United States remain popular for Nigerian students.
``In fact, according the Institute of International Education, Nigeria sends more students to the United States than any other country in sub-Saharan Africa.
``Nigerians certainly contribute to the diversity of U.S. academic institutions, but they also make lasting contributions to Nigerian society when they return to their home country after completing their studies.
``Nigeria currently has over 7, 000 students studying in over 733 institutions across 50 states of the United States and the District of Columbia.
``Our annual college and career fairs have directly contributed to the increase in number of excellent Nigerian applicants to U.S. institutions, as well as increased financial aid and scholarships for Nigerian students.
The public affairs officer said that the fair provided opportunities for Nigerian students to get first hand information from schools of their choices.
She said that though the embassy was engaged in sensitising students all over Nigeria, it was looking forward to replicating such fairs in other states across the country.
``What I am expecting from the fair is that many more Nigerian students will know about the opportunities in the United States of America to study at institutions of higher learning.
``We have a lot of professionals at our U.S. embassy; the educational advising centre to help guide the students,; but also here today, representatives from many universities in the United States to tell students specifically about their colleges and universities and why they may want to study there.
``So I think the students will get a lot of information; it will help them navigate if they really want to study in the United States.
``We do it throughout the year, telling people about education advising, because there is a lot of students in a lot of these places that will really like to learn more about the possibilities of studying in the United States.
``We do it on a regular basis, it is not just as big as this, this is really big and normally what we do is we go to schools, we have discussions with schools and go and meet those students at those schools.’’
The two-day fair, which closes on Thursday, is expected to have three sessions.
The first two sessions held on Wednesday hosted undergraduate students from secondary schools while the third session billed for Thursday would host graduate students.
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