SUMMER IN CAIRO: THE VALUE OF STUDYABROAD
Our View
By Samantha Aguiar, Lena Civitarese, and Anita Elahi Nantucket High School seniors
We are fortunate to have a public school system so well supported by the community. In the past four years, the education we have received has allowed us to grow and has taught us to question and to explore the world around us. Yet, that knowledge, gained at our school, is only brought to life if it is applied beyond the boundaries of the school.

From left: Anita Elahi, Lena Civitarese and Samantha Aguiar in Cairo.

This past summer, through our fiveand one-half-week experience in Egypt, we were fortunate enough to use that knowledge as a foundation to gain a better understanding of the people, world, and lifestyles around us.

The discipline and work ethic, along with the language skills that we gained throughout our high school career, enabled us to study Modern Standard Arabic, a language that is becoming increasingly important in today's world.

As we studied, we came to better understand the Islamic and Middle Eastern cultures. When we came back for our senior year, we realized that studying Arabic taught us to appreciate language and expression, and this realization has added a greater depth and significance to our language classes this year.

Our time studying history and examining the commonalities between various peoples and cultures through literature at the Nantucket Public Schools opened our eyes and our minds. On Nantucket, it is sometimes easy to forget to keep open minds because of the island's isolation and the closeness and small size of our community.

In Egypt, we had no choice but to accept the differences we encountered, and we ended up embracing them. The process made us realize that it is imperative to be able to do so.

We met people from Egypt and from other nations around the globe, and our conversations with them expanded our knowledge of the world. We saw aspects of the Egyptian culture that taught us many new ideas and perspectives.

When we ventured into Coptic Cairo, the Christian section of the city that we did not realize existed, we were amazed to see that incredibly sacred churches stood securely and proudly in the midst of this important Islamic capital. This protected co-existence illustrates a respect and understanding between the two religions that is rarely depicted through U.S. media. It taught us that tolerance and acceptance are possible in any and all circumstances.

We have brought back this idea of tolerance to school, particularly in our social studies and language classes. It is something that we try to remember daily and that we try to apply to every aspect of our lives. Yet, it is only one of the many lessons we learned in Egypt that caused us to live and view our lives in different ways.

It is easy for one to stay in his or her own comfort zone and forget that there is an entire world open for exploration. It is crucial to break through one's barriers and discover the cultures and people that exist in that world. Doing so allows a person to apply the knowledge he or she knows and gain more in the process.

We believe that studying abroad is an incredibly meaningful experience. It is an aspect of education that cannot be learned just within the classroom, no matter where one goes to school. We feel fortunate for our opportunity to study in Egypt last summer, and recommend studying in another country whenever

and wherever possible. I