Every year in Orlando, Florida, Civilizations Exchange & Cooperation Foundation holds a conference called Better Understanding for a Better World. The purpose of this conference is to celebrate diversity and create a stronger, more tolerant understanding of cultures all over the world through the gathering of exchange students living in the United States. This year was the 10th anniversary of the conference, which takes place in the heart of Disney World. From February 11th to February 14th, students flew in from all over the U.S., including Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Indiana, North Carolina and many more. The students came from 22 countries all over the world covering Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. In just three and a half days, students learned all about each other and formed close bonds while enjoying hanging out with people vastly different from themselves. This year, I attended the conference, making myself the only American out of 35 students.

The first day of the conference is a bit of a haze for students who arrive at all different times of the night. Although I missed the opening ceremonies, I was told they included presentations from the head of the conference, Iman Mohamed Bashar, who is from Syria. He expressed the importance of the youth, who are the future. The conference itself also teaches leadership skills through activities and presentations, both given to the students and by the students, which taught us to be proactive and adamant about creating a tolerant world for the future. The conference being at Disney provides a fun aspect for students, who were given about two hours of recreational time at the parks every night, and an entire day to explore a park. (This was especially fun for the foreign students; many had never been to Disney before). Since Civilization Exchange is a main aspect of the conference, students spend a day in Epcot going from ‘country’ to ‘country’, learning about different aspects of that particular culture. Directly following that, students hear seven or eight different presentations about each other’s countries. There were obvious tensions between some countries, such as the Palestinian students, who, when presenting about their country, proceeded to give their opinion on their conflict with Israel. However, students were able to realize that these countries’ pasts or conflicts had nothing to do with the students standing there today, and international barriers should not stand in the way of an opportunity to learn about a unique culture.

The other huge part of this conference was religious diversity. I am half-Jewish, and was the only person at the conference who had any Jewish background at all. All of the other students were Muslim, Christian, or Atheist. On the second day of the conference, called the interfaith day, we visited a mosque, a church, and a synagogue. This was succeeded by a Q&A session with a panel that had a representative from each of these. While I have been to a church and a synagogue, I had never been to a mosque. We were encouraged to participate in the prayers to fully immerse ourselves. One of the things it helped me with personally was dissociating the Muslim religion from terrorism. After hearing many of the kids from Middle Eastern decent talk about times they have been racially profiled, or made to feel alienated while living in America, I began to see Islam as a religion just like Christianity and Judaism. All these religions have radicals, and people try and justify their horrible actions with their faith, yet that is only a small percentage of the people that practice that religion.

Being an American, I heard the stereotypes associated with Americans before they arrived in the U.S. I often heard that American girls were stupid, or “easy.”  Furthermore, I heard that Americans are fat (this one was a regular might I add, much to the amusement of my peers). These common stereotypes also included the notion that Americans are lazy, and that every American is a nationalist. One of the central objectives of the conference was to go about disbanding these stereotypes that often arise from a small fraction of people who identify with a certain group. Letting a small group of people define an entire group of people is unacceptable, and many of the students in attendance felt adamant towards working to change those that have that closed mindset. Through the sharing of our experiences, strong bonds were formed not only between students, but also between nationalities. The experience was eye-opening in the sense that there were so many young, tolerant people that wish for peace, amongst all the strife and fighting in their home countries. Many students opened up about the warzones they have lived through in countries like Tunisia, Yemen, Palestine, and Senegal. Overall, the conference was a positive and interesting experience, and one that gave students the chance to meet people they otherwise would not have.