Cablegate: Promoting U.S. Higher Education in Brunei.

VZCZCXRO9900
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHBD #0606 3320821
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 280821Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3631
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS

UNCLAS BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN 000606

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/PD:AGRIMES, EAP/MTS:TFORSYTH, ECA/V/F/A:CAINMX

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KPAO KISL PREL BX
SUBJECT: PROMOTING U.S. HIGHER EDUCATION IN BRUNEI.

1. A Bruneian student's achievement of a perfect 2400 score on the
SAT Reasoning Test has provided evidence that post efforts to
promote U.S. higher education in cooperation with the Government of
Brunei (GOB) are having some effect, and also given us an
opportunity to further publicize U.S. education opportunities to a
local audience.

2. Charlene Bong, a Bruneian secondary school student from Kuala
Belait, was only one of 238 students to achieve a perfect score on
the recent SAT's, out of a total of 1,465,744 who took the test
worldwide. After Embassy learned of Ms. Bong's accomplishments, we
invited her and her parents to meet with the Ambassador at the
Embassy on November 23 so that he could offer his personal
congratulations. On November 25, the local English daily "Borneo
Bulletin" (readership of 150,000) and Malay daily "Media Permata"
ran a page three story on Ms. Bong's achievement and her meeting
with the Ambassador, based on an Embassy press release. The story
quoted the Ambassador as saying that Ms. Bong's accomplishment
"shows that Brunei's educational system is producing students who
can compete for the admission to the most prestigious university
programs in the United States," and that "the door to higher
education in the U.S. is wide open." (Read the online version
of article 'KB Schoolgirl Hits Perfect Score in US College Admission
Test' at
http://brunei.usembassy.gov/media_coverage.ht ml)

3. During her meeting with the Ambassador, Ms. Bong told us that
she had already submitted an early action application to Stanford,
hoped to study physics either there or at MIT, and would also apply
to several other U.S. schools if not accepted early at Stanford.
The choice of schools to which she is applying was determined
largely by their presence on a list of recommended universities
given to her by the Ministry of Defense (MOD), which identified her
as a potential recipient of its "Supreme Commander Scholarship
Scheme" for study at one of the recommended institutions on the
basis of her scores on Brunei's A-level scholastic tests. According
to Ms. Bong and her parents, it was this offer of a GOB scholarship
to U.S. schools that made it financially feasible for her to
consider study in the U.S. and so encouraged her to take the SAT and
apply to Stanford.

4. Comment: The news that an MOD scholarship may make it possible
for this outstanding young scholar to attend a U.S. university is
particularly gratifying, since the inclusion of American
institutions on the list of MOD-recommended schools is new this year
and the direct result of Embassy's work to promote U.S. education.
We have conducted a concerted campaign to encourage Bruneians to
look beyond their traditional higher education destinations in the
UK and Australia, which respectively host approximately 1,000 and
400 Bruneian students (as compared to less than two dozen in the
U.S.). As part of that campaign, post worked with Department to use
Voluntary Visitor programs and other tools to familiarize MOD
officials with U.S. universities, and as a result they decided to
include a number of American colleges on the list of recommended
schools which their scholarship recipients could consider. The
likely attendance of this perfect-SAT student at a U.S. university
on a GOB-funded scholarship is a welcome example that our efforts to
promote U.S. education are paying off.

SKODON

UNCLASSIFIED 2

SIPDIS

UNCLASSIFIED

UNCLASSIFIED

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