The Indiana Center for Cultural Exchange :: ICCE

The United States 2004 Summer Institute On American Life and Youth Leadership
July 17 to August 22, 2004

The United States 2004 Summer Institute on American Life and Youth Leadership is a project of the Indiana Center for Cultural Exchange, a partnership between Indiana University, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame. The Summer Institute is sponsored by the Middle East Partnership Initiative and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The Summer Institute is being overseen by the Branch for the Study of the United States of the ECA. Seventeen graduating high school seniors from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Qatar, West Bank, Bahrain, Oman, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel, and Tunisia attended the Summer Institute on the Purdue University campus. Visits were made to the other universities in Indiana and various sites around the state. At the end of the Summer Institute, the students traveled to Chicago and Washington, D.C. In Washington, they attended a program at Georgetown University.

The Summer Institute's Seminars on American Life introduced the students to the political, cultural, economic and social dimensions of American life. The students attended an integrated and creative set of seminars and site visits with scholars from Indiana University, Purdue University, the University of Notre Dame, and Georgetown University. The goal of these seminars is mutual understanding, so the students will share, in class and on the site visits, about the political, cultural, economic and social dimensions of their own countries.

The Summer Institute's Leadership Development Program during the second part of the Summer Institute helped the students identify and develop leadership skills through readings, lectures, course activities, site visits and guest speakers. The goal of this aspect of the Summer Institute is to help the students develop skills that will be useful in their university career.

The visit to Chicago during the domestic travel part of the Summer Institute gave the students a first-hand experience of the different aspects of American social and cultural life in a large urban environment. The Parliament of the World's Religions, which has its headquarters in Chicago, gave the students a tour of Muslim and Christian religious and cultural sites in the city.

The visit to Washington D.C. gave the students an experience of American history and political life. The Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University presented a program that enabled the students to learn about how individuals and communities from their countries are contributing to American life.

Follow-up Reunion in Tunisia in 2005 gave the students and faculty an opportunity to see each other again and discuss what the students have been doing in terms of community service projects. They also met with students from Georgetown University and the University of Delaware that were also having their summer institute reunion.