Like his American counterparts, SF State international student Abdulaziz Almubayedh of Saudi Arabia dresses in jeans and t-shirts and speaks fluent English.

Originally from Khobar, a city in Saudi Arabia’s eastern province that houses one quarter of the nation’s oil companies and field rigs, Almubayedh said he came to San Francisco because of its level of diversity.

“Most people here are friendly,” Almubayedh said. “One reason I came is that no one is prejudiced.”

Almubayedh is one of thousands of students who received scholarships from the Saudi Arabian government nearly three years ago, in the country’s quest to rebuild its infrastructure. About twenty of those Saudi students came to SF State, said Patrice Mulholland, an assistant director at SF State’s Office of International Programs (OIP).

The Saudi Arabian government offered the five-year full-ride scholarship program to students to strengthen technological, educational, and medical sectors of its society, Mulholland said.

Aside from the city, Almubayedh said he was also attracted to SF State’s business school, because he said he wants to earn a better education and degree in America.

Almubayedh, also known as “Aziz,” is a 24 year old junior who currently studies e-commerce business at SF State.

“There was a big buzz in Saudi when the government first introduced the program,” Mulholland said. “The (Saudi) students could go anywhere in the world,” if the educational program benefited Saudi Arabia’s development process.

Mulholland said Saudi Arabia is especially in need of nurses, special education teachers, and computer science specialists.

At the same time Saudi Arabia was sending students abroad, SF State was looking to expand its international programs in the Middle East, Mulholland said.

Through the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington D.C., Mulholland said SF State
inquired about becoming an approved school for Saudi students.

Shortly after, Mulholland said SF State was accepted, and she attended an educational fair in Riyad Province. Mulholland met Arab students there, including Almubayedh, she said.

Marwan Mero, 25, is a SF State business major who came from Saudi Arabia’s western province to specialize in information technology. Mero said he wants to contribute to the Saudi Arabian business sector, especially in the areas of cultural knowledge and relational development.

Aside from helping their own country, both Almubayedh and Mero said they also came to the U.S. to change perceptions Americans have about Saudis, and to help Saudis have a better understanding of Americans.

“The perceptions Americans have about the Middle East…they think it’s all negative and all terrorist,” Almubayedh said. “We’re trying to do our best to change perceptions about the Middle East and Saudi Arabia.”

Mero said the Saudi students are also trying to exchange ideas.

“When I go back home,” Mero said, “I’ll get a job and be able to explain about America…we will bring our own positive ideas about the society—not the political aspects.”

Developing human relationships that transcend political issues is necessary for the peace process, said David Wick, an OIP coordinator. He said more American students need to see how warm and hospitable Middle Easterners can be.

Wick said cultural, language, and religious differences have kept Americans from embracing Middle Easterners in the past, but he said, at the end of the day, we all need
the same things to survive.

“Eating meals with people can help change the course of history,” Wick said. “It’s going to take all that little stuff (to do that).”