More than 4,000 students join Mawhiba program

RIYADH: A total of 4,326 male and female students started their local and regional summer program for 2015 under the sponsorship of the King Abdul Aziz and his Companions Foundation for the Gifted and Creativity (Mawhiba) throughout the Kingdom on Sunday.
The annual event which attracted an increased number of students this year would be held for a period of three weeks in and out of the Kingdom.
According to an official from Mawhiba, 4,000 students have been enrolled in the local programs and 326 have been enrolled in foreign programs which included 157 students going outside the Kingdom, while the rest would follow international programs inside the Kingdom.
He said that the program has targeted outstanding students to help them acquire and develop scientific skills that would be useful in their future career. The students are taking part in 79 scientific programs throughout the Kingdom.
“The whole idea of the program is to make the Kingdom a knowledge-based society and provide these talented students with the leadership ability, team work and training for them to be useful citizens in the society and help them enable themselves adapt to their local environment,” he said, pointing out that the program is being held under the National Plan for Science and Technology.
The training programs are based on subjects such as biology and medical science, environment, energy, mathematics and information technology, physics, engineering and chemistry.
The scientific materials program also include introduction to medical biology, cryptography, medical terminology, the principles of engineering design, an introduction to medical biology, and English for scientific purposes for students.
The program is being coordinated with Saudi universities, leading schools and research centers in addition to the most prestigious universities in the United States, Britain, Ireland, and Canada. Among the most prominent universities included in the program are Columbia and Cornell.
The number of the international enrichment programs has increased by 25 percent, with the addition of eight new programs, among them management enrichment programs to increase opportunities for students to expand their fields at the Stanford University and the University of Texas, Colorado, California and Pennsylvania and a medical program at the University of Toronto.