Saudi Gazette report

TABUK — The first batch of students under the “NEOM Scholarship Program ending in employment” will embark on their educational journey earlier this week.

The 15-member batch, including six girls, will set out to the United States, to pursue their studies in several specializations including tourism, hospitality, archeology and heritage.

They were picked from among more than 300 students who had applied for the first phase of the scholarship program. This is within the program launched by the NEOM Company, which has a plan to send 250 most talented male and female students from the local community over the coming five years.

NEOM Co. has chosen these students from the regions of NEOM, Duba and Haql through a registration and admission process that started in July 2019.

This comes within a series of initiatives launched within the framework of the NEOM Social Responsibility Program towards the local community to provide attractive and appropriate job opportunities for them to become a building block in the process of success and development of NEOM.

Applications will be invited for choosing the second batch of students in the third quarter of this year to attract the sons and daughters of the NEOM region to study in the world’s premier universities in the United States and various European countries, including France and Britain, to specialize in a number of future NEOM sectors.

The first batch of students has already undergone a basic training course for the English language in cooperation with the University of Tabuk.

These students will begin their scholarship study by developing their academic skills in the English language for a full year in Virginia.

After pursuing courses in the English language institutes in the first six months, these students will be able to apply for graduate courses in various American universities in the fields of tourism, hospitality and archeology. Other disciplines will be added as the project progresses.

The students, who received the scholarships, will be provided with suitable job opportunities with NEOM after completion of their courses. The company will provide financial and administrative support to them while the Institute of International Education (IIE) will oversee their studies and academic provisions.

The first batch of students are: Ibrahim Arafa Al-Nahhas, Abdullah Shabib Al-Ajmi, Abdul Rahman Khalaf Al-Amrani, Saad Ahmed Al-Amrani, Khaled Abdullah Al-Huwaiti, Fares Hatem Ghafoori, Rayan Awad Al-Balawi, Ghazi Eid Al-Huwaiti, Abdul Rahman Sami Al-Aqil, Sayif Ibrahim Al-Huwaiti, Wijdan Ali Al-Amrani, Hanan Ahmed Abu Salem, Mahra Sami Kallabi, Ghaidaa Fayez Al-Fayez, and Hala Atallah Suleiman Al-Amrani.