RIYADH: The King Abdul Aziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity, known as Mawhiba, celebrated the completion of the second season of its “Gifted Arabs” initiative in Riyadh on Wednesday.

About 387 students from 16 Middle East countries took part in a range of programs, which lasted three weeks, with the students living for the entire period with their fellow participants.

The initiative was organized in partnership between Mawhiba and the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization. 

The achievements of the students were highlighted during the closing ceremony, hosted by King Saud University and Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University, including in engineering, physics, Earth and space sciences, medicine, biological and chemical sciences, computer science, and applied mathematics.

At the end of the closing ceremony, Amal Al-Hazzaa, the secretary-general of Mawhiba, honored the participating students and presented memorial gifts to the initiative’s partners.

Saudi student Norah Aldahash said: “I registered (for) the computer science program through Princess Noura bint Abdulrahman University, specifically the coding field, which was one of the best options because I learned a lot from it, and I plan to register next year with different fields.”

Shaima Ali Larbi, a 17-year-old participant from Algeria, told Arab News: “I am participating as part of the medical field. This is the best version of the program in my opinion because I watched the previous ones. The ceremony was well organized, too.”

Fateh Bshaina, the charge d’affaires at the Embassy of Libya in Riyadh, said: “My feelings are very positive, especially since I noticed during the first ceremony that Libyan participants were around 16 students, whereas now 20 students participated in person, and 30 others participated virtually, and I look forward to next year.”