A very lucky group of 14 MSFS students, one professor, and one administrator will be spending Spring Break traveling in Saudi Arabia on a fact-finding mission sponsored by the Saudi Ministry of Education.
While this year’s itinerary has not yet been released, participants expect the trip to resemble last year’s trip, which featured visits to universities, government agencies, and businesses throughout the kingdom.
Preparatory meetings have begun for departure, and spirits are high among students. One first-year participant says that she looks forward to getting to know a new culture: “I’m excited about the opportunity to dialogue with members of a society and culture I’m unfamiliar with. I hope to establish personal and professional relationships that will debunk many of my preconceptions about how a strictly Muslim society functions. I study human rights, so most of my knowledge regarding KSA has been from one perspective.”
On the other hand, another first-year student is looking forward to getting the Saudi perspective on the world: “I am most looking forward to interacting with our hosts and hearing what they have to say about their country and its place in the world. While I imagine that Saudi Arabia will be extremely different from any other country I have visited, I expect that meeting with Saudis will challenge my impression of how different they are from us. I hope to find that we have a lot more in common than most people might initially think.”
The MSFS Saudi Arabia trip is scheduled for late February and runs until the second week of March. Participants will organize a post-trip event for members of the Georgetown community upon their return to discuss their experience, Saudi perspectives, and the Saudi-US relationship.