Every morning since she became an exchange student at Robbinsdale Armstrong High School, Zobia Ghayas wakes up, throws on her favorite sweatshirt, and gets ready for school. She brushes her teeth and combs her hair. Then she kneels down, orients herself toward Mecca, and prays. Zobia Ghayas is an Ismaili – a member of a Pakistani Muslim sect in which prayer is limited to once in the morning and once at night, a certain percentage of wealth is given to those in need, and clothing rules play no part. Although some would look down on Zobia for her Ismaili heritage, as Cannon Falls student Mikaela DeGroot realized, “the world is far more united than the upcoming generations can know.The people that make up the world are not enemies, but opportunities.”

”Friday, April 11, Zobia and her fellow exchange students presented their unique brand of opportunity to the Cannon Falls High School classes.

“Oh, back home I just cover it like this,” says Zobia, cheerfully demonstrating her killer headscarf technique. “It really differs from person to person how they want to dress up.” Zobia’s religion, Islam, is one of the most misunderstood in the country. Besides fielding questions like “Do you guys have to cover your head when you’re back home?” forty-eight percent of Muslim Americans report experiencing racial or religious discrimination. Forty-three percent of non-Muslim Americans admit to feeling prejudiced against Muslims. Yet Zobia is like any other Armstrong high schooler. She likes chocolate chip cookies, and has recently taken up Nordic skiing. Zobia’s foreign exchange student peers are the same.

Gunho Park, instead of despairing over an imminent North Korean attack, spends his days in South Korea playing soccer and watching baseball. Jules Ledru, rather than sneer over the American slobs’ ratty sweatshirts and undersized yoga pants, admires the personal fashion choices of those around him. American students need to realize that the stereotypical foreign exchange student is just that – a stereotype. Even though Brazilian exchange student Lucas Coelho enjoys soccer just as much as most American’s would assume, he is more than a soccer fan; Lucas also enjoys rap music, longboarding, and skiing. To use an old cliché: still waters run deep.

Traveling the world and ending up in a completely different atmosphere with different people, customs, traditions, and a whole new language can be downright terrifying. Most students can hardly imagine leaving their home country for a week, let alone a year to live with people they’ve never met speaking a language they hardly know. But for the rare student seeking adventure and the unknown, the foreign exchange program is a novel idea – capable of expanded students’ horizons and shattering stereotypes around the globe.