Nothing enlarges your notions of the world quite like going to another land and seeing it for yourself.

Rabia Salim knows something about that. She was one of 20 students from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan recently selected by the U.S. Department of State to take part in a cultural exchange that brought them to the United States and Green River Community College.

And when the 20-year-old business administration major returns to her home town of Peshawar, Pakistan, her head and heart will not be the same ones she brought here.

“It’s a snapshot of America,” Salim said of what the Study of the U.S. Institute (SUSI) for Student Leaders meant to her. “When I came here, I had many misperceptions about Americans: They don’t like to talk to you; they won’t answer you; they are very rude; they are this, they are that. But when I came here, it was the total opposite of that.

“I loved it,” Salim added with a smile, as her traveling companions played a spirited game of cricket during a picnic at Isaac Evans Park. “It’s our second week going on, and I haven’t felt any homesickness. My host family was wonderful.”

The Study of the U.S. Branch in the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) created the program to foster a better understanding of the U.S. abroad and to help develop future world leaders. The ECA oversees more than 40,000 academic and professional exchange program students annually, and these young people were among them.

GRCC has been a part of the program for three years, and it is the only community college in the nation to do so. Other participants were Southern Illinois University, the University of Minnesota, the University of Arkansas, the University of Alabama in Huntsville and Nazareth College, N.Y.

The 120 student leaders arrived in the U.S. in late June to take part in the five-week program at these institutions, ending in a conference in Washington, D.C, where they made presentations underscoring their learning and experiences.

They studied U.S. history, government, institutions, economy, society and culture, experiencing everything from a Mariners baseball game – the Mariners got whipped – to a visit to Olympia, from a stint volunteering at the Auburn Food Bank to rafting on the Hoh River.

Mohammad Aktar Hossain, 23, found his service at the food bank enlightening.

“We are participating in community service, and I am real surprised to find that American people need help also,” said Hossain.

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

“It’s about leadership, it’s about American history, culture, government and politics,” said Dr. Barry Bannister, the program’s director at GRCC. “We mix the leadership training with service like volunteering at the Auburn Food Bank. Our approach is service leadership, with a view to understanding more about leadership, so that when they go home, they’ll be practicing it.”

“The students have to go through a special process, and they have to write about themselves, and they are selected by their country through the U.S. Embassy to even qualify for this,” said Lena Hagen, a program specialist at GRCC. “They learn leadership and have the opportunity to meet people from other places they would not meet if they were at home. You have the Bangladeshis, the Indians and the Pakistanis all come together for five weeks, and if you looked at the group you would never know who was who or what was what. Differences are set aside for the five weeks, and friendships are made. It’s awesome.”

Salim acknowledged her own misconceptions about Americans, but noted that Americans have also strange ideas about her country and her religion.

“People say, ‘Not all Muslims are terrorists, but every terrorist is a Muslim.’ That’s the biggest misconception,” Salim said. “You know, in our country a lot of terrorism is going around nowadays, even in my city. Yesterday, a bomb was blasted not far from my house. But it doesn’t mean that Muslims are responsible for all terrorism. People think of Pakistan, and they think of terrorists,”

Salim has big plans for her future. She’s engaged to be married and plans to start her own business in social entrepreneurship when she finishes school.

“I want to help my community, my country, my people,” Salim said. “Here, I got the idea that business could not only be for profit, but could help others, be beneficial to others. I believe in this.”