South Asian Students attend study at Green River Community College

June 22, 2009 2:25 pm

Green River Community College will host a five-week Study of the U.S. Institute for Student Leaders from South Asia as part of a broader U.S. State Department program designed to promote a better understanding of the U.S. abroad and to help develop future world leaders.

GRCC has organized a program that includes the study of U.S. history, government, institutions, economy, society and culture. Twenty students from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan will take advantage of an opportunity to experience Washington state’s hospitality and recreational splendors.

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs provides funding for the program and the Academy for Educational Development administers it.

Some 120 student leaders arrived in the United States in late June to participate in a five-week program at select institutions. A total of six institutes take place at the same time across the country at the following locations: Southern Illinois University, Carbondale; University of Minnesota; University of Arkansas, Fayetteville; University of Alabama, Huntsville; Nazareth College and GRCC.

The program culminates in a conference in Washington, DC where the students make presentations highlighting their learning and experiences.

The U.S. State Department is supplying the grant under the Fulbright-Hays Act “to foster mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.”

Among the highlights of the GRCC program will be a focus on leadership, social responsibility and service in the context of American Society, all aimed at gaining a better understanding of U.S. history, politics, and culture and contemporary American life.

The idea is to promote a better understanding of the U.S. abroad and to help develop future world leaders. Institute participants are among the more than 40,000 academic and professional exchange program participants overseen annually by ECA. Other ECA programs include the Fulbright Program and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program.