Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy virtually launched the American Corner at Andhra University on Thursday in the presence of Joel Reifman, US Consul General, Hyderabad, and Veena Reddy, USAID Mission Director. It is the third centre in the country after Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.
Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister said this outreach programme will be further enhanced to have an American Consulate in Vizag hopefully in the near future. Having the American Corner in AU will go a long way in bridging the skill gap and also supporting students to study abroad in the top universities. “I am happy to announce that young people of AP will have access to a global knowledge hub in the form of American Corner,” he said.
Joel Reifman said, “The American Corner is a community gathering place that features guest speakers, movie screenings, English language classes, book clubs, education advising for the US universities and celebrations of American holidays.” He said both the US and AP governments are committed to providing education and employment opportunities to youth, particularly women.
Veena Reddy said a space like this takes a really great vision and strong purpose towards development. This place also serves to discuss pressing development challenges, elevate development objectives and make progress together. “As a daughter of Kadapa district, I am aware of people of Andhra Pradesh having deep interest towards the US,” she said.
Addressing a press conference along with AU Vice-Chancellor PVGD Prasada Reddy, US Consulate Public Affairs Officer David Moyer said the American Corner will be immensely useful to students and youth of AP. “Training will be given at the corner in English language to teachers. Workshops will be conducted for researchers. It will hold more programmes in association with AU,’’ he said.
Prasada Reddy said the corner has rolled out a roadmap for the next one year and it has proposed to conduct 100 workshops and train 15,000 to 20,000 students. “As more and more students from the State are keen on pursuing higher studies in the US, it will help them with accurate and detailed information about the US education institutes,’’ he said and added that high speed internet and American literature will be available at the corner.
While AU will supervise operation of the American Corner, experts will be deputed by the American Consulate. He said start-ups will attract huge investments with the setting up of incubation centres at AU. State government overseas education advisor Kumar Annavarapu said webinars soon will be held to create awareness about visa counselling and overseas education. Telugu students can excel if they are guided by mentors. Efforts were being made to set up Australia and Canada centres soon, he said.
