An Afghan Exchange
By Rebecca Hein
Recently I was interested to receive an email from Aziz Saleem of Afghanistan, who wrote to me about his grandfather, Ghulam Nabi. Nabi, from Jalalabad, Afghanistan, enrolled in the University of Wyoming in the 1950s on scholarship for a bachelor’s of science degree in agronomy. This was part of the University’s Afghan project, in which UW sent professors to Afghanistan as consultants and teachers. Exchange students such as Nabi were also included in the program.
Nabi graduated June 1, 1959. His college transcript shows his high school courses: English, algebra, plane geometry, trigonometry, physics, botany and geology, among other subjects. At UW he enrolled in standard School of Agriculture courses such as field crops, soils, botany, crop diseases and weed control.
For his physical education requirements, he took volleyball, swimming and softball. Nabi earned 136 hours of undergraduate credits and nine hours of graduate credits. The Wyoming Collegiate 4H club awarded him an honorary membership, along with Azam Gal, another student from Afghanistan.
After graduating, Nabi returned to Afghanistan, working in agriculture in the Helmand province. He died in 1964.
Special thanks to Aziz Saleem for providing this information, and granting permission to use it.
Rebecca Hein is an assistant editor of WyoHistory.org