In July 2006, eight Dutch students participated in the Summer Institute for European Student Leaders. Here you can read more about their experiences.

(Translated from http://www.fulbright.nl/index.php?menutree=5|112 )

Preconceptions

Rather quickly after arrival, the first preconceptions were challenged. Imane Akhlafa, first year student at the Hogeschool Utrecht in social work: "Omaha is fun! I had expected to find myself in the middle of the corn fields, but it all looks very ‘American’. It really is a nice town. Before we went shopping for the first time, we did not want to go. We could not imagine what a city like Omaha could offer us, we thought it would lag behind very far. But they really have nice things here. There are nice stores, cloth, restaurants and all very cheap!"

The behavior of Americans could also stand the test of approval. Akhlafa: "I thought that Americans would feel better than us, high and mighty, and even be arrogant. But that was not true at all. They are very kind and social. We were told that they would be rather direct. Well, that was correct and I had to get used to that. Especially in shops. Suddenly there is someone in front of you who says rather loudly “How are you today?” or “How was your day, honey?” That really is different from Holland, here people keep more of a distance."

Anouk Frans from Zwolle had expected that Americans would pretend to be very different from what they really are. Frans: ‘I had huge prejudices. I thought that Americans would be totally fake but come across as nice - but in the meantime have no interest in you at all. I think I made a big mistake here, because people were honestly very interested. They wanted to know everything about me, and told us also a lot of personal things. I think I will even miss that quite a bit when I am back in Holland, where we are generally super stiff and uninterested."

The Classes

In the end, what mattered was what could be learned. The classes were taught by teachers of the two host universities and were geared towards English writing and speaking skills, but also towards communication in business.

Leyla Boskurt from Bunschoten-Spakenburg, student in the field of law at a vocational school: "There was much emphasis on business communication, for example in meetings. I have, for instance, learned how to behave as a group leader. We learned how to conduct a group presentation with effective non-verbal communication. We also were taught how to get across something that is negative in a better way, for example if you need to tell a class mate to behave in a more respectful way."

Anouk Frans says she learned a lot from her class in body language and presentation skills. All students were videotaped and these were discussed in class: "Especially the lessons where we had to present and those on body language I found valuable. These are things that are really useful for our future. And the giving of honest feedback was very helpful as well."