First Posted: 1/15/2009
PEMBROKE - When the news that Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus had won the Nobel Prize came over her car radio, Sandy Waterkotte let out a little scream.
Although Waterkotte, vice chancellor for advancement at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke, doesn't know Yunus, it was like an “old friend” had won the lottery.
That is because Aminul Karim, a Bangladeshi graduate student that the Lumberton Rotary Club sponsors at UNCP talked so often about Yunus that Waterkotte felt she knew the prize-winning economist.
“I almost ran off the road when I heard,” Waterkotte said. “Bangladesh … Bangladesh. I know someone from Bangladesh. How many times do you learn that someone has won the Nobel Prize and you go ‘oh, OK?' But to have a connection to someone with an attachment to that winner is truly rare.”
Karim, 31, went to the same high school and college and taught at the same university as Yunus. UNCP officials say that demonstrates the reach of their International Program.
“I think the fact that Aminul has a connection to a Nobel Prize winner and is a student here at the university is a great illustration of just how connected we all are,” Chancellor Allen Meadors said Wednesday during a reception at his home for the 81 students in UNCP's International Student Program. “It really is a small world, and we want our students to be prepared for that.”
Prize student
Karim has never met the 65-year-old economist, but his eyes light up when he talks about him. Yunus is the first Noble Prize winner from Bangladesh, a poverty-stricken nation of about 141 million people located on the Bay on Bengal. Both he and Karim are from the city of Chittagong. Yunus was once a professor of economics at Chittagong University. Karim taught business courses there before coming to UNCP.
“I was very happy, very proud … very excited that he won,” Karim said. “I called Sandy and I e-mailed everyone. This is very big news for my country and for that part of the world. I watched one of our local newscasters on the Internet try to interview (Yunus) and he was so excited that he couldn't get the questions out.”
Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded won the $1.4 million prize for the pioneering use of tiny, seemingly insignificant loans to lift millions out of poverty. Karim said under the loan program, Bangladeshis who did not qualify for loans from conventional banks can qualify for small loans. No collateral is needed and repayment is based on an honor system. The average loan is about $200, but recipients are put in groups of five. Once two members of the group have borrowed money, the other three must wait for the funds to be repaid before they get a loan.
“It is a great concept to help people who don't have anything, but can still get a loan,” Karim said. “People said it wouldn't work, that the people would just use the money to feed themselves, but that proved to be wrong. The people used the loans to change their lives. The repayment rate is 99 percent, which of course, is quite high.”
Waterkotte said the concept has been copied around the world.
“What is so interesting is that it is not some scientific theory that people may or may not understand,” Waterkotte said of Yunus' work. “This is someone who has conceived a way to help people in a country that has so much poverty. It is a special story and all the more special because of Aminul's connection to it.”
Student life
Karim has been studying at UNCP for about two months. It will take him about two years to complete his degree.
His wife has had a baby girl since he left, and he has never seen the child.
“It has been hard at times to adjust, but I like Pembroke. It is a nice place,” he said. “I don't have a car so I have to rely on Sandy a lot. The food is different … I'm used to more spicy things.”
But those are minor annoyances compared with the greater good that Karim hopes to do. He said the reason he applied for the Rotary scholarship was to help his fellow countrymen.
“In my country, we follow American curriculum, but we don't have any first-hand experience with the American education system,” he said. “It gives me a chance to learn how to teach in the class which will directly benefit the students in my county and improve my education at the same time.”
Robert O. Schneider, associate vice chancellor for International Programs, said the university also benefits from having students like Karim on campus. The program, which had 16 students in 1995, hopes to have 150 to 200 within five years. The current crop of international students represents more than 20 countries.
“Our students will be selling to the world, buying from the world, working for international companies, managing employees from other countries and cultures and competing with people from all over the world for jobs and markets,” Schneider said. “In such an interconnected and global society, we owe it to our students to prepare them for that world.”