Fifteen undergraduates from eleven public universities across the USA arrived in Tunis on June 12 for an intensive three-week study travel seminar focusing on the contrast and convergence of modernization and tradition in Tunisia and the Middle East today. The students were selected based on an application in which they outlined their goals for studying in Tunisia and their abilities to relate to different cultures. The students’ program of activity was framed by topical lectures and Arabic class at their headquarters, CEMAT, (the Centre d’études maghrébines à Tunis) and excursions throughout Tunisia. CEMAT is the Tunisian branch of the American Institute of Maghrib Studies (AIMS).

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) sponsored the program, “Tunisia Past and Present,” to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of North Africa and the Near East. ECA provides financial support to CEMAT through a grant to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). The program began in earnest with an orientation for the group in Washington on June 10 designed by CAORC, the federation of nineteen American overseas research centers. Students heard Ambassador Mohamed Nejib Hachana of Tunisia, met with Tunisian Fulbright students studying at the University of Delaware, and learned from returned Peace Corps volunteers now active in the Friends of Tunisia organization. Thomas Farrell, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, represented the Department of State and welcomed the students to the launch of this innovative program, emphasizing the importance of learning about Islam and the Arab world from direct experience.

During their three week stay, the students traveled over 1000 miles in Tunisia and heard from over twenty lecturers who spoke on subjects ranging from Tunisian population programs to Arab music.

The students, all Pell Grant eligible, represented the following public universities from ten states: Humboldt State, Georgia State, Colorado State, Clemson, University of Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, University of Arkansas, University of Missouri-Columbia, University of Virginia, and the University of Oklahoma.

At the end of their three-week study, the students heard from U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia William Hudson who pronounced that they too were “ambassadors.”