Egyptian students visit

By Diane Ramirez     1/27/11 6:00pm

A group of Egyptian students from the American University in Cairo's Center for American Studies and Research visited Rice last week with the goal of building social, cultural and political links between the United States and the Middle East. The Public Diplomacy and Global Policymaking program at the Baker Institute arranged the visit in conjunction with 10 Rice students who visited Cairo last summer: Sean Graham (Baker '10), Lovett College senior Thomas Campbell, Sid Richardson College junior Graham West, Shamoor Anis (Sid '10), Michael Feldman (Sid '10), Wiess College senior Robin Richards, McMurtry College sophomore Anastazija Ristovska, Jones College junior Marc Sabbagh, McMurtry senior David Sorge and Susan Wu (Jones '10).

The group's two-week visit to AUC focused on forming connections between the two universities by holding a series of discussions on topics ranging from religion to news media with Egyptian students.

The same group of Rice students who went to Cairo hosted the Egyptian students for four days. The Egyptian students had meals at Tex-Mex restaurants and fully participated in student life and activities.

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The program also hoped to dispel stereotypes and provide an opportunity for complete cultural immersion.

The visit included roundtable discussions on varying topics, question and answer sessions, meetings with faculty and briefings with oil companies, since the students were interested in learning about oil and energy policy in Texas.

The visit culminated with a two-day Egyptian film festival held at the Baker Institute.

Campbell, one of the original student leaders in the creation of this program, said the program was two years in the making before any of the student exchange visits occurred. As a history major, he said choosing Cairo for the program was especially exciting. The city not only hosts the headquarters of the Arab League, which is an organization similar to the European Union, but is also a cornerstone to Arab-Israeli relations.

"Cairo is the crossroads of many different current events," Campbell said. "Egypt has historically been a big leader in the Arab world and still has a great deal of power today."

Campbell said the discussions between the two groups of students, both in Cairo and here at Rice, were very interesting and very successful, but that the non-academic time spent together was definitely an unexpected success. For him, it was rewarding to experience a new place and a new culture.

"You can't really [understand] a people until you've been to where they are from," he said.

One of the Egyptian students, Aida Mohamed Yehia, is currently in the process of obtaining her master's degree in political science from AUC. Yehia said she decided to participate in this program because it was an opportunity to meet people with different backgrounds and to add to Middle East-U.S. relations. However, she especially enjoyed simply being at Rice.

"My favorite part was attending classes with our hosts," Yehia said. "Rice University is very reputable, huge and has highly competitive students. I loved it!"

Even though the student exchange portion of the colloquium is now over, Campbell said the Baker Institute plans to continue expanding the program.

Campbell said different ideas for expansion include another trip abroad for Rice students, since they were able to form connections throughout the region, more film festivals and a possible lecture series about issues in the Middle East and public diplomacy.

"Making connections with foreign universities is not easy," he said. "So having this program between the two countries is great.

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