Dr. Mohamed Khabou of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of West Florida (UWF) is the epitome of how international exchange can start small and grow into something greater. Dr. Khabou first learned of Gulf Coast Diplomacy through his daughter, a former Youth Diplomat. As an immigrant from Tunisia, Dr. Khabou encouraged her to learn about other cultures and ways of life. Eventually, Gulf Coast Diplomacy asked him to speak with International Visitor Leadership Participants (IVLP) on a Hidden No More project examining the accomplishments of women in STEM fields.
Though our office asked Dr. Khabou to give his time to the visitors, he felt he received an enormous amount from the meeting. He was fascinated with the different perspectives present in the discussion. Having people from other countries there provided a richness that can be lacking in conversations with people from only one country. For example, Dr. Khabou has long been interested in increasing female representation in STEM, and he noticed less-developed countries often had a much greater female representation than in the United States. This observation led both to general thinking on his part and to research on the matter. Since meeting with the IVLP participants, Dr. Khabou has worked with the engineering and sociology departments at UWF to learn about the challenges high school girls face in being admitted to STEM fields.
Throughout both his own time with Gulf Coast Diplomacy and his daughter’s time with Youth Diplomats, Dr. Khabou has become a huge advocate for international exchange. He finds having conversations with people with different viewpoints opens up opportunities, especially when examining solutions to shared obstacles.
If there is one thing that everyone can learn from international exchange, Dr. Khabou hopes it is this: having these kinds of diverse conversations opens doors. No individual country is perfect, and there is always something to be learned from someone with another background. As for himself, Dr. Khabou looks forward to continuing to meet people from around the world, especially knowing that his daughter, who introduced him to Gulf Coast Diplomacy, is doing the same.
