Kent State University welcomes three international students to campus as part of the U.S. Department of State’s Edmund S. Muskie Graduate Fellowship Program. Madina Assangaliyeva from Kazakhstan, Nodirbek Ismailov from Kyrgyzstan and Kirill Zagurskiy from Russia have become part of the Kent State student body this fall semester.

“It is a great honor for Kent State to once again host students through the Edmund S. Muskie Fellowship Program,” says David Di Maria, associate director for Kent State’s Office of Global Education. “This prestigious fellowship brings emerging leaders from Eurasia to study at the graduate level in the United States for one or two years.”

The Muskie program is highly competitive with a four percent acceptance rate.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 1992 to encourage economic and democratic growth in Eurasia, the Muskie Program is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the U.S. Department of State and administered by IREX. By selecting emerging leaders from 12 countries of the former Soviet Union, the Muskie program aims to promote mutual understanding, build democracy and foster the transition to market economies in Eurasia and Central Asia through intensive academic study and professional training.

“Muskie fellows enrich our campus community and promote mutual understanding between the United States and Eurasian countries,” Di Maria says. “In addition to their studies, the fellows perform at least 40 hours of community service and complete an internship in their field of academic specialization prior to returning to their home countries.”

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Muskie program has, since its inception, identified, trained and supported talented practitioners who do the hard work needed to advance democracy and development. The program now boasts nearly 5,000 alumni who have returned to their home countries to lead institutional change and economic growth in the professional sectors where they work.

For more information about the Muskie program, visit www.irex.org/programs/muskie.