July 3, 2002

ASBSU President Chosen to Travel to Israel to Study Mideast Conflict

Boise State University’s Christopher P. Mathias has been selected as one of 16 university student body presidents to spend part of the summer break traveling in Israel, studying the Middle East conflict and meeting with Arab and Jewish representatives from various sectors of society.

Mathias’ trip, July 30-Aug. 9, is sponsored and funded by Project Interchange, a non-profit, non-political educational institute of the American Jewish Committee. The program is designed to raise awareness and foster understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict among young leaders, who often go on to serve in public offices.

Mathias is looking forward to meeting Arab and Jewish student university leaders, Israeli government officials, Palestinians, Israeli-Arab community leaders, academic experts and journalists.

"This seminar will give me first-hand accounts and allow me to learn more about this complicated situation from the people who have and continue to live it," said Mathias.

The program will include visits to sites of strategic, historic and religious significance in Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Tel Aviv. The group will spend time at an army base in the Golan Heights, an absorption center for new immigrants and at Christian holy sites near the Sea of Galilee and in Jerusalem.

The delegation includes student body presidents from universities in Utah, Kansas, Oklahoma, Minnesota, Iowa, Idaho, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Launched in August 1994, this annual student leadership seminar is underwritten by Stansford M. Adelstein of Rapid City, S.D. and The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation of Tulsa, Okla. Project Interchange, founded in 1982, has sent nearly 3,000 Americans, including state officials and members of Congress, on educational trips.

Mathias also sees the trip as an opportunity to better serve the Boise State student body on issues the campus will face next year.

"I think it’s a continuation of the well-rounded principle that I have always tried to live by," said Mathias. "The more you learn, the more open minded and well rounded you become. Those are vital characteristics in someone who wants to be a good leader."

A native of St. Johnsbury, Vt., Mathias began his term as president of the Boise State student body in April. He was also recently named recipient of the Hewlett Packard Distinguished Leadership in Human Rights Scholarship.

Contact:
Chris Mathias
ASBSU President
208-426-1553