Above: Ahad Anwar, at his host high school (Photo Credit: Vern Fisher, Monterey Herald).

By Claudia Meléndez Salinas, Monterey Herald

Ahad Anwar applied for a Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study scholarship so he could be a cultural ambassador for his native Pakistan and help increase understanding of his country in the United States.

He knew he would face some misunderstandings, but it still stung when one of his classmates implied he was a terrorist.

“In my robotics class, they were discussing how to solder,” he said outside the Monterey Public Library, where he volunteers many hours a week. “I used to make small circuits back home, and I said I know how to solder. One kid came to me and said, ‘Obviously you know how to solder. You make bombs.’ That really hurt me but also, my main aim coming here was to get rid of stereotypes about Pakistan and Middle Eastern countries. If one person does something wrong you cannot label a country of 200 million people by that. My main goal was to get rid of stereotypes.”

Anwar, 17, has been busy with his mission. He has made presentations to hundreds of students at Monterey High School, where he is a junior, and throughout the Central Coast at different venues. He was one of the speakers featured at the Salinas TedEx in February and earlier this month during the meeting of the AFS Monterey Peninsula Chapter.

“He is a wonderful ambassador for his country and it gives me great hope for the future of the world,” said Jayanti Addleman, a longtime volunteer with AFS and the chair of the AFS Monterey Peninsula Chapter. “My husband and I have hosted five students from different countries and have known many AFS students. They have always been amazing young men and women, and it may be because of the way the world is these days, but I have rarely seen any student take their role as ambassador for their country so seriously.”

AFS-USA (formerly the American Field Service) is a nonprofit organization that offers international exchange programs in more than 40 countries around the world. It’s one of the organizations that administers the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange & Study.

For Anwar, the multiple presentations are all part of fulfilling his mission to become a “global ambassador” for his country, he said. But for him to fulfill his role, he had to overcome one of his biggest fears: public speaking.

“I’d never spoken in public back in Pakistan,” he said. “But after coming here I felt it was my responsibility to present Pakistan on an international level so I’ve given multiple presentations. My talk at TedEx was about stepping out of your comfort zone. If I did not take that one chance I would still be afraid of speaking in public.”

Funded by the U.S. Department of State, the YES scholarship is not only for young people like Anwar to help dispel myths about Muslim-majority countries but for them to learn more about the United States.

For Anwar, that meant the culture shock of having dinner at 5 p.m. and living with two dogs inside the house.

“In Pakistan, dinner is at 9 or 10. When I came to the U.S., I remember the first dinner I had at 5 I was in shock. I had to adjust,” he said. “In Pakistan, moms and dads take care of everything, our only responsibility is to study. Over here, I had to do my own laundry and take care of my house chores, I walk to school every day, I keep my room clean, I go to the grocery store with (my host parents.) I have matured here.”

Living in the United States has given Anwar an appreciation for its free education system for everyone and how teachers try to help all students, each at their own level — at least at Monterey High.

“In Pakistan everybody takes the same exam” at the end of the school year. “In America, if you’re a slow learner, the teachers will concentrate more on that student to bring them to the level of the class. I appreciate that in American schools, and teachers here are really kind.”

The opportunity to learn about the world is also open to U.S. students through the YES Abroad program, and Addleman said she hopes more students would apply.