It’s a long way from high school in Yemen to completing post-secondary education in Canada. But ten students in the Yemen scholarship program have now completed their educational journey and are graduating this year. Seven of the students were honoured at a special banquet at the Palliser Hotel in downtown Calgary on June 8.

The dinner was hosted by Nexen’s Government Relations Department and several past scholarship graduates also attended. At the event, graduates of the scholarship program showed a video they prepared to illustrate their experience in Canada and thank Nexen for the scholarship.

This year, six students are graduating with a Bachelor’s degree from SAIT in information technology while one student is receiving her Doctor of Medicine degree and will be doing a pediatric residency in Calgary next year. This is the first and only doctor in the program so far. Two engineers are graduating this year, one in electrical engineering from the University of Alberta, and one in mechanical engineering from the University of Caglary. The final student has completed a degree in economics from Carleton University.

His Excellency, Abdullah Saleh Abdullah Al-Bar, deputy speaker of Al-Shoura Council (equivalent to the Canadian Senate) traveled from Yemen to Calgary to help Nexen President and CEO Charlie Fischer congratulate the graduates. It was his first visit to Canada.

Nexen began awarding scholarships to Yemeni students in 1999, giving them the opportunity to travel to Canada and attend either SAIT or the University of Calgary. This program was established as part of Nexen’s community investment in Yemen.

"As a Canadian company operating in Yemen, we formed the scholarship program to improve the educational opportunities of Yemeni students,"says Charlie Fischer, Nexen's President and CEO.

The scholarship is merit-based and candidates are selected based on their grades and an interview with a Nexen representative, Amideast - an American-based educational institute focused on training in English language proficiency, and a representative from the Ministry of Higher Education in Yemen.

Since the beginning of the program, 80 Yemeni students have been awarded scholarships. The first group of scholarship winners graduated in 2003. By the end of this year, 36 students will have graduated from various post-secondary institutes throughout Canada.

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