Before the War: Making Connections

Before the war, students from the elite high school of Baghdad College met their peers at the Metropolitan Learning Center in Bloomfield, Connecticut, during a two-hour videoconference. For the first time, these students were able to interact with civilians in a country that they had mostly learned about from the media.

They discovered what the other students knew about their culture, uncovered myths in sterotypes and shared their own perceptions on the possibility of war.

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After the War: Returning to Baghdad

Several weeks after major combat was declared over in Iraq, we returned to Baghdad to reconnect with the Iraqi students. We were able to get a first-hand look at the destruction of the war, hear survival stories of the students' families and gain perspective of what it was like to live through such a dangerous and overwhelming time period.

The Iraqi students reunited with the students from Bloomfield, Connecticut, during a second videoconference to share the reality of their experiences.

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