Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dasan Thamattoor reports that most of the international students he's taught, even in his most difficult courses, have been stellar. They are unusually "driven and extremely motivated" in ways that inspire their American classmates, he said.

Thamattoor cites Rodwell Mabaera '02, who grew up in Chinhoyi, Zimbabwe, and attended Colby on an Oak Scholarship, a program bring students to Colby from Zimbabwe and Denmark. Early on Thamattoor noticed that Mabaera, a double major in chemistry and math and one of a dozen African students on campus, continually signed up for "the hardest classes imaginable". He became "a kind of elder statesman" among classmates of all sorts, Thamattoor said.

Mabaera ran on the cross-country team, played on an indoor soccer team with American and international students and faculty members and was a COOT trip leader. In May he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa after just three years, and in August he enrolled at Dartmouth Medical School.

Significant numbers of international students take courses in government and international studies, and their diverse perspectives enrich the content and discussions in those subjects.

G. Calvin Mackenzie, the Goldfarb Family Distinguished Professor of American Government, worries, though, that future changes in national policy, inspired by security concerns, will make it more difficult for international students to study in America. In the aftermath of last year's terrorist attacks, Mackenzie notes, there's been understandable attention paid to the potential risks posed by international study programs. But there has been far less discussion of the other side of the story, Mackenzie argues.

"If we make it significantly harder for foreign students to come to study on U.S. campuses, we'll substantially diminish the educational experience of American students who learn from them," he said. "We will also destroy the great potential we have, through our colleges and universities, to make just the kinds of positive connections with young people in other countries that we need to make if we're to raise levels of mutual understanding and combat future terrorism."

Mutual understanding doesn't come instantly, of course, and even on campus there can be adjustment issue.

Last spring more than a dozen Davis-UWC scholars from 13 countries and five continents gathered to talk about the particular challenges of being an international student on an American campus these days. .

Several admitted that they were mystified by what they considered peculiar behavior by some of their American classmates. Alcohol abuse, especially among first-year students, and casual sexual activity shocked some of the international scholars. Instead of breaking down barriers, initial impressions sometimes reinforced stereotypes.

Some of these kids only care about Abercrombie and Fitch and using daddy's ATM card," said a student from India. Another remembered her first view of "this vast conveyor belt of all the food" available in the dining halls and the massive leftovers piled into the trash afterward. "It was a shock," she said, "to really see for the first time this use-and-throw-away culture."

Some recounted incidents of hostility or ignorance on the part of a few American classmates. The first question a scholar from the Ukraine was asked by his roommate was, "Are your parents communists or are they part of the Mafia?"

But after a few similar examples, one of the Davis-UWC scholars protested. "I think we're creating a misleading impression," said Diego Puig, a sophomore from Argentina. "This idea that Americans are ignorant--I think that's complete crap." He said he's met plenty of Americans on campus who are smart, engaged and open. And if an American dropped into his own hometown in Argentina, he wouldn't necessarily be greeted with enthusiasm, Puig says, so why should the international students at Colby expect special treatment?

Going abroad for college not only offers an opportunity to understand American politics and culture better but also a chance to reflect on one's own background and experience.