By Emaan Ali (2017-2018, Pakistan, hosted by YFU in Meadville, PA)

I have always believed that youth have the ability to bring the world together. Being an exchange student, one of the prime responsibility is to represent your country and promote cross-cultural understandings. This is one of the many reasons I was so excited when I got selected to represent Pakistan at the Better Understanding for a Better World conference held in Baltimore, MD.

BUBW is an annual conference which brings together exchange students currently doing their exchange year in the US through a Department of State funded program and American high school students. It aims at bringing together students from across the world by having dialogue and interfaith discussions and by discussing problems faced by people around the world and how we can take steps to minimize them.

During BUBW I had a chance to meet around 90 amazing students, from 32 countries around the world. I got a chance to interact with people from around the world and engage in important discussions about the role we play in changing the world and making it a better place. It was amazing to see how we all put aside and interacted with each other as global citizens. I also had the opportunity to attend workshops about the role youth plays in promoting better understanding and how youth can make a difference in the world.

During the conference, I also had the opportunity to visit a mosque, a church and a synagogue. It was very interesting to see how people from different faiths and backgrounds practice their religion. I also attended an interfaith panel which made me realize how similar the basic teachings of all religions are.

BUBW was surely the highlight of my exchange year. I not only made amazing friends from all over the world but I also realised the importance of putting aside our differences and working together to solve global issues. I would like to thank CEFC for conducting this amazing conference and I really hope a lot more people can attend it next year and benefit from it as much as I did.