To Our Dedicated Friends:

On behalf of President C. Michael Smith and the Board of Trustees of the American University of Afghanistan, it is my sincere pleasure to invite you to be part of the university’s next incredible accomplishment.  On May 26, 2011, the American University of Afghanistan will graduate its very first class of students – both men and women – on its campus in Kabul, Afghanistan.  As we celebrate with our students, we ask that you consider a donation to the AUAF Class of 2011 Fund.

The commencement ceremony is a milestone achievement for AUAF.  It marks the very first graduating class of male and female students.  We expect to have 30 graduates, eight of whom are women.  In only a few years, we have come a long way.  Since opening our doors in 2006 with 57 students, barely 1% women, AUAF’s enrollment numbers have increased to nearly 800 students.  Women now make up 21% of the overall student body, increasing by 46% from the fall to spring 2011 semesters alone.

And now – our first graduates.

To honor our first graduating class, who are paving the way for so many Afghans today; Friends of the American University of Afghanistan has committed to grant all graduation funds raised to the AUAF Class of 2011 Fund.  The Fund is a current-use gift to the university, and will make an immediate impact on AUAF’s core priority, financial aid.  An idea suggested by our graduating class, the Fund will provide financial support to AUAF’s incoming class – setting an example and a tradition of giving on behalf of AUAF graduates.  It represents their commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan…one leader at a time.

We are honored to share this celebration with you.  Thank you for your contributions of time, money, energy, and commitment – such generosity has been vital to help us reach this point.  Our hope has always been that the American University of Afghanistan will educate the future leaders of Afghanistan – and it is happening.

Please consider our warm invitation to attend AUAF’s graduation on May 26, 2011 in Kabul, Afghanistan.  If you are unable to attend, please continue your support by donating to the Class of 2011 Fund.  We need your help.

If you have any questions, please contact Heidi Schaler at heidi.schaler@friendsofauaf.org.

With Sincere Thanks,

Leslie M. Schweitzer

Chairman of the Board

The Washington Post article from this morning on the event Honoring Laura Bush:

By Kathleen Parker
Wednesday, June 16, 2010; A17

Amid all the dark news from Afghanistan, every now and then a sliver of light slips through the cracks.

Afghanistan, it turns out, is rich in minerals. Trillions rich. It’s going to become the Saudi Arabia of lithium, they say. Thanks to vast stores of that resource, plus iron, copper, cobalt and gold, this impoverished, war-torn nation could become a wealthy nation.

No more wars, no Taliban, no heroin, no Osama bin Laden.

Too good to be true, right?

The deposits are real enough, but the question remains: Can a country without mining infrastructure and populated by people who’ve never known prosperity or possessed the collective memory of self-direction (70 percent of Afghans are under age 30) put its resources to constructive use?

Although the potential is “stunning,” according to Gen. David Petraeus, the sidebars and footnotes to this heartening story are full of caveats and “yes, buts.”

There’s also potential for corruption, for fights between the central government and the provinces, for conflict along the border with Pakistan, where some of the richest deposits are located, and for a resurgent and enriched Taliban.

Moreover, turning deposits into a functioning mining industry will take decades. But speculation naturally leads to the hope that Afghanistan could begin to fund its own reinvention and liberate other nations, notably ours, from that burden.

The key, it seems, lies in educating the rising generation of Afghans — in the liberal arts as well as in the technologies needed to advance this new economic potential. There is hope there, too, not least because of the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF), the nation’s only private, nonprofit university.

The school was launched with the help of a substantial grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development and built on 48 acres in Kabul. Instruction commenced in 2006, and the first class graduated last month. The school has 500 students, 20 percent of them women, and it hopes to expand to 800 students next year and to 2,000 in five years.

Most Afghans can’t afford the tuition — 70 percent receive financial aid — and are being educated in large part through American donations. Some of those donors attended a dinner in Washington recently to hear from students and to honor former first lady Laura Bush for her support of the university. A new fundraising project is underway for the Laura W. Bush Women’s Resource Center, which will be the cornerstone of a new library and student services building with classrooms, conference space and an auditorium.

And you thought all she did was sit and smile.

The dinner, held at the National Museum of Women in the Arts, was attended by many of those who have worked in the private sector to help bring opportunity to Afghans, especially women. In attendance, to name but a few, were C. Michael Smith, university president; Leslie M. Schweitzer, chair of the Friends of the AUAF; Said T. Jawad, Afghanistan’s ambassador to the United States; and Caroline Hudson Firestone, who has dedicated herself to helping Afghan women and is the author of “Afghanistan in Transition.”

It was one of those events familiar to Washingtonians where philanthropists and government officials convene to sip wine and, if the spirit moves the crowd, to write checks. If inspiration is the lubricant that compels luckier Americans to share prosperity, then this particular evening was rich.

The highlight was the testimony of five students who trekked from Afghanistan to report on the results of American generosity. More than once, they urged the audience: “Don’t feel sorry for us, be there for us.”

Each spoke variously of escaping the Taliban, losing family members, living as refugees in Pakistan. All spoke of feeling safe on the campus, of free speech, of open dialogue with professors and mutual respect — all miracles we take for granted.

But one young woman stood out. Masooma Habibi, a graduate of Goldman Sachs’s 10,000 Women program at the AUAF, founded an Internet-related consulting business in Kabul and employs nearly two dozen people. Her head covered, she spoke softly in somewhat halting English. The AUAF is “like a dream,” she said. When Americans educate an Afghan, “you are playing with life, so thank you.”

We knew just what she meant.

It seems at times too much to hope that Afghanistan might ever become a stable country, where men and women could lead prosperous, peaceful lives. The key to that kind of future clearly lies in education.

There’s more to mine in Afghanistan than minerals. And there’s gold in these students.

Rep. Dina Titus speaks about her experiences visiting the American University of Afghanistan

With only a couple years difference in their age, sisters Sonia and Sofia Ziaee are making their education a family affair.

The petite twosome share a love of fashion, a consistently upbeat attitude, and the same broad grin. Together they enrolled in AUAF’s Foundation Studies Program in January 2008 to help them prepare for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).

“For months I looked for a great place for English training,” said the younger sister, Sofia. “To experience an international institute inside Afghanistan is the reason I’m here right now.”

Sonia, the eldest sister, has accumulated over five years of professional experience with international organizations operating in Afghanistan. After enrolling, her experience in dual-language work environments helped her achieve a passing TOEFL score and gain admission to AUAF’s undergraduate program after only one semester of study.

The sisters are not the only students at AUAF who share the same parents. There are at least 15 pairs of siblings currently enrolled in the two “core” programs, Foundation Studies and Undergraduate.

Law is Sonia’s favorite field of study. As law is not yet offered by AUAF as a major, Sonia chose to enroll in business administration. Sofia will choose information technology and computer studies as her major.

Sonia spent her first three years of the elementary school in Kabul. Like 85% of AUAF students, she spent time outside of her country and completed her high school as a refugee in Pakistan.

Her younger sister, Sofia, has followed the opposite pattern: she completed the first five years of her education in Pakistan, and is currently completing grade eleven in Kabul. Sofia is one of the few AUAF students who are studying English while still in high school.

Sonia spent two months in the California and Washington D.C. States in U.S. in 2004 for network training. Experiencing a short-term in American education system motivated Sonia to seek education in an international institution of higher education. She has recently been shortlisted for a full scholarship to Australia, “I think the essay for application form and my GPA are the main factors which have entered my name into that list.”

Speaking of her experience thus far with AUAF, Sonia says, “It is almost a perfect university in comparison to other universities in Afghanistan, and we are completely satisfied with it. However, we think AUAF could plan courses in music, art, and sports, which encourage students to get involved in the community.”
When asked why they applied to AUAF rather than other institutions or universities, Sonia responded, “International standards and method of teaching of this university influenced us to make such decision.”