Q Life Magazine Q Magazine (US) December 2015 | Page 11
Education |
For 10 Students,
A Life-Changing Trip
Christian Rodriguez plans to get used to flying. He hopes to become an
ambassador one day. And his first ever trip outside the United States was more
than 8,000 miles, to Qatar in November 2014, on an exchange fellowship
sponsored by the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Washington, D.C.,
and the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations (NCUSAR).
B
efore this trip, Rodriguez had never even been
on a plane before. “I had a panic attack on the
first flight,” admits the Los Angeles native, who just
graduated with a degree in international studies from La
Verne, a private university 35 miles outside his home city.
Over nine days, Rodriguez and nine other American
college students and five professors were given
a whirlwind tour of Qatar. They met with government
officials, human rights activists, educators, students,
businesspeople and journalists, and visited Al Jazeera
headquarters, the Museum of Islamic Art, and Katara
cultural village.
For Rodriguez, who grew up in South Central Los
Angeles, it was a life-changing trip. “Living [in South
Central] is very tough, mentally and physically,” he
recalls. “You see constant violence, peers using drugs,
joining gangs.” UCLA was nearby, but people from
his neighborhood were not encouraged to go there.
Rodriguez, however, studied hard, won scholarships
and got into La Verne. And last year he was selected
for the Qatar Fellowship.
“It was an opportunity to get out of my comfort zone,
to visit and learn about another culture,” he says.
“Qatar plays a significant role in politics in the region.
To say I’ve been there, it’s just amazing.”
Engaging With the Arab World
“NCUSAR is a nonprofit, with a mission to educate
the American public about the Arab world,” explains
Josh Hilbrand, the organization’s Director of Student
Programs. “We have been running study abroad
programs for all 33 years of our existence, hundreds
of them, for students, faculty, military delegations,
congressional delegations … but this was our first study
trip to Qatar.”
The Qatar trip grew out of the Model Arab League
(MAL), a student debate and leadership development
program (see box on page 15). The top MAL participants
across the country were encouraged to
apply, and the 15 winners were flown to Washington,
D.C., to be briefed on what to expect in Qatar before
departure. After their return, the delegates commit
to sharing their experiences with their communities
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