Long hidden under the shadow of the Soviet Union, Central Asia is both rich in resources and ethnically diverse; yet it has remained a largely untapped and understudied region of the world.
To remedy that situation, the Sumitomo Bank Global Foundation has awarded its first grant to a U.S. university -- in fact, its first grant to any university outside Asia -- to the Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS) to support programs designed to promote the education of Central Asian scholars and further knowledge about the region.
Through its new Central Asia Scholars Program, YCIAS will bring graduate fellows and scholars from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to Yale as Sumitomo Scholars. The scholars in the program, many of whom currently have careers in government and industry, will study in graduate-level programs in international and development economics, international relations, forestry and environmental studies, and management. By giving these scholars the opportunity to study abroad and make connections with students in Yale's professional schools, the new program seeks to pave the way for Central Asians to enter the world of trade and finance more easily and successfully.
Visiting Fellowship. In the third year of the grant, YCIAS will sponsor a Sumitomo Visiting Fellow. This individual will be a policy-oriented government or academic professional who will teach courses at the University -- thus, offering the broader Yale community the opportunity to interact with an expert on the problems and prospects of Central Asia at a more advanced level.
The Sumitomo Bank Global Foundation was established in 1994 as a not-for-profit corporation by the Sumitomo Bank, Ltd., one of the world's largest financial institutions. The foundation is committed to supporting programs that encourage academic achievement and pursuit of higher education in Asia by providing scholarships and other aid to students in that region. Since its establishment, the foundation has granted scholarships on a yearly basis to over 370 students attending 18 universities in China, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand.
Although this is the first grant of its kind for the relatively newly-formed Sumitomo Bank Global Foundation, the Sumitomo Bank has a long relationship with Yale. In 1973, Sumitomo Group pledged more than $2 million over five years in support of the creation of a Japanese studies endowment and a named chair, the Sumitomo Professorship in Japanese Studies, which is currently held by Edwin McClellan. Since then, the Sumitomo Bank Group has continued to be a principal supporter of Japanese studies at the University.