Emilia B. Smith, Public Diplomacy Officer for Public Engagement, U.S. Consulate General, Hyderabad, is greeted by Sri Venkateswara University Vice-Chancellor Ch. Appa Rao during her visit to the campus in Tirupati on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR
Emilia B. Smith, Public Diplomacy Officer for Public Engagement at the U.S. Consulate General in Hyderabad, and Senthil, Public Engagement Specialist in the Consulate General’s public diplomacy section, visited Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) and Sri Padmavathi Mahila Visvavidyalayam (SPMVV) in Tirupati on Tuesday. They discussed a wide range of issues with the administrative and academic heads.
At SVU, Vice-Chancellor Ch. Appa Rao formally welcomed Ms. Smith and discussed the United States India Educational Foundation (USIEF) and the Fulbright Foreign Student Program, which are administered by binational Fulbright Commissions or U.S. embassies.
Registrar M. Bhupathi Naidu, RUSA coordinators T. Rama Shri, V. Usha Reddy, Deans S. Kishore (International Affairs), K. Narasimha (R&D) and RUSA CEO Rayala Vamsi Krishna participated in the discussion to review the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) inked by SVU with Purdue and North Eastern Universities.
Similarly, at SPMVV, Ms. Smith interacted with Vice-Chancellor V. Uma and Registrar N. Rajani on the upcoming English Language Fellow Program funded by the U.S. Government, which intends to extend training to the students, research scholars and young faculty on English for employability skills, communication skills and academic writing respectively.
Dean (Centre for International Relations) P. Vijayalakshmi, Associate Dean R. Usha, Dean (Development) T. Bharathi, and English department head Y.S. Sharada took part in the deliberations.
Rounding up the visit, Ms. Smith explained that the meetings helped her gain a thorough understanding of the functioning of Indian universities, their academic programs, research initiatives and community engagement efforts.
Published – March 25, 2025 08:02 pm IST
