Dr. Saud Anwar, AKU ’91
There are many AKU Medical Alumni who now call United States our home. As we continue to become more integrated and be a part of the society, it is important to invest in ways to help secure the future of the next generation of community members.
It is no secret that there are ever increasing challenges in the world, as well as in the United States. In these times, it is important to identify ways help advance and empower the Pakistani-American youth. They need to have the skills to be the leaders of the future so that they are in an advantageous position to contribute to the society.
The current and future community members need to have the capacity to work within the public and private sectors, advocate for social justice, be civic participants, identify mechanisms of higher education, and expect equal opportunity and fair treatment. There is a need to cultivate and recognize the strength of our cultural heritage and also work towards community building and advance coalition with other communities.
A group of community members have recognized the ongoing needs and the importance of promoting the ambitions and aspiration of the Pakistani-American community. This acknowledgement resulted in the creation of USPAK Foundation to fulfill the above-mentioned goals.
USPAK Foundation is a 501(c)(3) entity, which is a civic and educational group who is also focused on engaging the Pakistani-American community along with other communities, to help in the integration of the youth to be effective future leaders. As a part of our activities, various youth programs and conferences have been held. We are proud to be one of the only organizations in the Country which has helped to take over 500 youth to observe and interact with members of the legislative and the administrative branches of the government. Over 500 of the youth have visited the White House and have been able to interact with the personnel and people within the White House.
We have setup multiple workshops to have the people learn about excellence and leadership with not only meeting legislators, members of congress and many US president’s administration officials and also various agency officials, but also meet successful entrepreneurs and young professionals who are leaders within their own field. Students have been taken to the Supreme Court as well to learn about our judicial government. Having the students learning skills for success including networking, media communication, public speaking, and leadership training and coalition building have been some of the programs and activities that we have been conducted.
Our generations of AKU graduates need to move towards making sure that the leadership skills that we have learned during our careers are further transferred and taught to our next generations. The challenges the next generation will face are quite different from the ones that we may have faced, it is important to create institutions, which would allow them to be better prepared with the sense of community and stronger network.
I am currently serving as the chairperson for the board of directors of the USPAK Foundation and I would urge members of our own AKU alumni who are in the United States, who have children in high school and colleges to use this entity to make sure that the next generation is able to achieve all possible opportunities and successes. This leadership in United States has to grow not from Washington, D.C. but the communities and that is the reason that we are hoping to create a network of rising leaders within the various parts of the country and also increase the number of charter members for the USPAK Foundation with state based chapters.
To learn more about the Foundation please visit: www.uspakfoundation.org
Or email the Executive Director of USPAK Foundation Mr. Irfan Malik at Ed@USPakFoundation.org