Twelve Jordanian students visited the Georgetown campus on Wednesday during their national tour to interact with American students and learn about student leadership in the United States.
The 12 members of the prestigious Special Program for Jordan Student Leaders, funded by the U.S. embassy in Amman, Jordan, came to the United States on Aug. 28.
They have been traveling around the nation with two Arabic interpreters visiting other universities and engaging in mutual dialogue with American students, academics and professionals. They’ve been as far west as Colorado and recently visited Duke and North Carolina State University.
All of the students are also part of the elite King Abdullah’s Young Leader Excellence Program, which is meant to promote student leadership and political activism among Jordanian youth.
Expressing a particular interest in politics, the students met some of Georgetown’s student leaders Wednesday including the president of the Georgetown College Democrats Scott Zumwalt (COL ’06) and Eric Lashner (COL ’05), who ran for GUSA vice president last spring and a seat on the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission in 2002. They also met with a group of Georgetown Arabic students.
During a special pizza lunch in the Leavey Center with Zumwalt and Lashner, the Jordanians discussed some of their impressions of the United States.
They emphasized that although they had greatly enjoyed their experience in the United States, they felt American impressions of Jordan and the Middle East were often skewed.
Noura Abu-Hmaidan said that this trip was in part a mission to help Americans come to a greater understanding of the Middle Eastern culture.
“The American people don’t seem to know much about Jordan and the Middle East, which we think is sad, but they’re able to know more and they want to learn more,” she said. “The fact that not all Americans know that much about us doesn’t mean they don’t want to learn.”
Mahmoud Al-Hailat agreed with Abu-Hmaidan.
“Our focus is to make things clear to Americans about what is going on in the Middle East,” he said. “We view ourselves sort of as ambassadors to the United States and are the real Middle Eastern media.”
During a spirited round of discussion Zumwalt and Lashner discussed their political careers at Georgetown and asked questions of the students as well. Zumwalt explained the American electoral system in the United States, sparking a flurry of questions and comments about the American political system and the government’s actions in the Middle East.
“There are many people who are trying to justify American action in the Middle East,” Rawan Mdanat said. “They are trying to convince people with an American vision but they should try to understand our point of view.”
The students complained about their treatment when they first arrived in the United States. They said they had been closely questioned by immigration officials and water had been spilled on them and their passports.
Although they had sometimes faced adversity and occasionally hostile political views through their three-week program, they said that the experience had been valuable and had resulted in mutual understanding, close connections and new American friends.
They will return home with tremendous international experience and an opportunity to tell their countrymen what the United States is really like.
“We don’t always get to see the American people up close where we come from,” Mdanat said. “We will go back home seeing them as people and trying to make a difference in the world even though they might have different political views from us.”
The students will return to Jordan on Sept. 18. Georgetown was one of the last stops on their trip.