The U.S. Department of State selected Dr. Ayubjon Yusupov, a Tajik alumnus of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ (ECA) Regional Scholars Exchange Program (RSEP), as State Alumni Member of the Month. As a direct result of his participation in the RSEP in 2002, Dr. Yusupov developed an innovative economics curriculum for Tajik State University of Commerce (TSUC). Students at the university now complete a series of dynamic economics courses in the English language, providing them with the tools to engage cooperatively with the United States and other countries over the course of their lives.

Upon completion of the RSEP program, Dr. Yusupov returned to Tajikistan where he served as the executive director of Junior Achievement of Tajikistan. He implemented Junior Achievement (JA) Worldwide entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy programs around the country. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Mercy Corp, the Eurasia Foundation, and the World Bank, he started JA Worldwide programs in 450 Tajik schools.

Dr. Yupov is an active member of the State Alumni community in Khajund. He shares the benefits of his exchange experience and encourages other alumni to collaborate in JA programs and partner with his university. He also mentors Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumni in their volunteer work at youth economic summer camps organized by JA Tajikistan, and organizes and facilitates both English and Tajik language discussion clubs on leadership, economics, ecology, and other topics of interest.

Dr. Yusupov currently serves as TSUC’s vice-director of the Institute of Economy and Trade. He is a member of the Anticorruption Committee Commission of Sughd oblast, a board member of Imon International (microfinance organization) and works regularly with Habitat for Humanity Tajikistan.

Throughout November, his leadership and dedication to youth scholarship and mentoring programs will be recognized on the State Alumni website (https://alumni.state.gov), ECA’s official website for the more than one million Department-sponsored exchange alumni worldwide. Each month, the Bureau’s Office of Alumni Affairs, which supports alumni as they build on their exchange experiences, confers the award on an outstanding alumnus or alumna.

For more information, visit the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ website at http://exchanges.state.gov/alumni/alumnus.html. Media Contact: Carla Coolman, CoolmanCH@state.gov , phone (202) 632-3356