PAIS students Brenda Reyes, center, and Rosetta Brown, right, listen to Fulbright scholar Stefano Salmaso, left, from Padua, Italy.

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The Providence Journal / Andrew Dickerman

PROVIDENCE — In a true exchange of cultures, two dozen international students sat down yesterday with teenagers from the Providence Academy of International Studies and discovered that they had a lot more in common than they thought.

Roughly 140 foreign students visited nine local high schools as part of the Fulbright Enrichment Seminar, a three-day forum sponsored by the U.S. State Department and presented by the Institute of International Education. The Fulbright Program is an international exchange program in which foreign students and scholars study in the United States and Americans study abroad.

The Fulbright scholars are here to earn graduate degrees in professions such as public health and international development. Many said they chose to study abroad so they could take that knowledge home with them. During their year in the United States, Fulbright students attend one of seven regional seminars held across the country.

Providence was selected for the New England seminar because local and state officials, including Mayor David N. Cicilline, were very supportive of the program, according to Thomas Farrell, deputy assistant secretary of state.

Given its considerable diversity, the Providence public schools were a perfect fit for the Fulbright students, some of whom share the same language as the high schoolers. At the Academy of International Studies, seniors conduct a yearlong research project on an issue of international importance, which they present during a graded, public exhibition in the spring.

Principal Nkoli Onye explained that the school’s mission is to combat American parochialism by encouraging students to think about issues that extend beyond their country’s borders.

What was particularly intriguing about the PAIS forum was that many of the high school students were the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. Unlike many of their suburban peers, these students are bilingual and they know how to navigate between two cultures — the world of their parents and the world of their peers. And, like the Fulbright scholars, some of them have witnessed poverty and civil unrest firsthand.

In Andrea Haywood’s class, the questions ranged from the straightforward (What kind of the food do you eat in Laos or Lebanon?) to the sublime (How is your education system different than ours?)

Some of the questions were pointed. One PAIS student asked whether Colombia was doing anything to address the problem of child soldiers. She was told that children are recruited, often by force, to join paramilitary armies and guerilla groups and that the government was doing little to stop this coercion.

“It happens in Pakistan, too,” said another high school student. “The girls are used for prostitution.”

One Fulbright scholar asked why PAIS seniors were so interested in the plight of children.

“Because children are our future,” a teenage girl said. “By addressing the problem, we can help eliminate it.”

A teacher asked a Palestinian student if his countrymen were angry at Americans for their support of Israel.

“No,” he said.

“We distinguish between the people and the government. In my country, we know that Americans are friendly and good-hearted.”

Students here were particularly interested in the food and culture of the foreign students, who represent 60 countries, including Mongolia, Finland and Palestine. One Fulbright student explained that in Italy, “You are still considered a baby when you’re 26. Family defines who you are. Sometimes, I think we have too much family.”

Many of the students in Haywood’s class come from the Dominican Republic, where family is the heart and soul of the culture. Sadly, one high school student said, when families move here, the ties that bind often begin to fray.

“Not all of us are blessed with two parents,” said a PAIS student from Mexico. “Sometimes families come here and break up.”

At the end of the classroom visits, PAIS students handed out T-shirts with the school logo to their international guests and invited them to share a meal of Dominican food.

lborg@projo.com