Development & Education

After the 2021 American withdrawal from Afghanistan, tens of thousands of Afghans who had helped the US military there were granted humanitarian parole to come to the United States. Among them was the Kabir family. Two sisters in that family have ambitious goals for their education, which they could not have received in their homeland. Reporter Adeline Sire met them and has their story, from Massachusetts.

In the wake of federal funding cuts that threaten scientists’ jobs in the US, programs have emerged across Europe to attract those worried American scientists. The World’s Gerry Hadden reports from a university in southern France where incoming Americans are referred to as “scientific refugees.”

With fewer science students and researchers considering the US as a destination, there is concern of a brain drain from the American STEM community. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Marc Zimmer, chemistry professor at Connecticut College, about these concerns.

When international students return home from the US with a college degree, they can make a lasting, positive difference in their communities. Reporter Briana Dugan highlights a Kenyan woman who studied computer science at Augustana College in Illinois and then went back to her small hometown to become an educator.

In the coming weeks, roughly two dozen students will become the inaugural graduates from Ecuador’s first public Indigenous university. Students and professors say they are finally receiving higher education in sync with their worldviews. They believe the university is poised to have a significant impact on the country’s future.