Holcombe Geography Series Program has been successful thanks to our international students. One of great things about this program is a lot of presenters have been visiting students! Ramz Shalbak shared her reflections about this program and love & pride for her country, Palestine. Enjoy. — Nami

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Geography Series Palestine

After I was selected as one of the six Palestinians for the Near East and South Asia Undergraduate Exchange Program (NESA UGRAD) to study in the United States, I was nervous and scared: I might not be good enough to represent my country in a way that it should be represented in. I guess it was because, at that point, I had not yet recognized this great connection between myself and Palestine, the place I come from.

As a NESA student, my goal is to learn about the American people, norms, holidays, and all the other aspects of the American culture, but I believe my experience has been extraordinarily different from my expectation, in such a positive way. Since the Fayetteville has such a supportive international community that is friendly to international students from all around the world, my experience has not been limited to only learning from the U.S. cultural experience but also from unique multi-cultural experiences. This kind of experience has taken me “on a journey” to different countries around the world every time I meet a new friend and learn something about his/her culture.

Presentation Day

After spending five months here, I felt it was my turn to tell my story to all those who had shared their lives, cultures, experiences, and feelings with me from the first day I came to Fayetteville. My biggest fear at that point was “how” — How am I going to represent my country which is not like any other countries, because Palestine, the small country that lies on the Mediterranean sea, has always been a special country for its long and unique history. Geography Series Program, a country presentation program that is open for anyone who wishes to learn different cultures and expand a global perspective, was the perfect chance for me to introduce the community to my country. The coordinator of Geography Series Program offered me the opportunity to start the Spring semester by presenting “one of the most complicated countries in the world” as people tend to describe it — Palestine.

At the beginning, it was hard for me to choose what to talk about because I was thinking that the image about Palestine for almost everyone would be automatically tied up with the image of the country as a war zone. I did not want to repeat same scenes they usually see on TV shows or news. I wanted to share stories how the life would be if you were a Palestinian. I wanted to show our daily life in Palestine to let participants know our language and culture. Also my number one hope was to give a memorable impression about Palestinian people.

Ramz and friends

This experience lifted me to a new level of understanding about peace not only as a Palestinian whose country is struggling as an occupied country, but also as an ambassador of the country who wants to translate her history and the knowledge she has gained here into a new peaceful experience to the whole world.

It is said that you never feel the love of something until you are far away from it; and it is indeed true because I did not actually realize how much I love my country and how much I am proud of my origins until I represented it.

by Ramz Shalbak