Ten Jordanian students came to AU Tuesday, where they participated in physical fitness activities, ate in the Terrace Dining Room and explored future career paths in health promotion.
AU's International Institute for Health Promotion hosted the students, who were recipients of the King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness.
Three Jordanian professionals, several State Department officials and interpreters accompanied the 14- to 16-year-old students to the campus.
The King Abdullah II Award for Physical Fitness program is based on the U.S. Presidential Physical Fitness Award program, which measures the fitness of school-age children based on their performance in five exercises - sit-ups, shuttle run, V-sit reach, endurance run and pull-ups. The Jordanian program, now two years old, was developed in consultation with the President's Council on Physical Fitness, according to the program's brochure.
President's Council on Physical Fitness Executive Director Melissa Johnson, an AU alumna and adjunct professor at AU, asked Robert Karch, the executive director of the institute, and Erin O'Neill, an assistant professor in the School of Education, Teaching and Health, to help organize the students' visit to AU, Karch said.
The 10 students - five male and five female - began their day by working out in Jacobs Fitness Center under the guidance of O'Neill and AU student athletes, O'Neill said.
"I put them through a very light workout - what we would consider a very light workout for an athlete - a dynamic warm-up, followed by the speed ladder and agility and strength exercises," O'Neill said.
Seven AU student athletes volunteered to spend the day with the Jordanian student athletes. Dan King, a sophomore in the Kogod School of Business on the track and field team; Chris Kagan, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs who is also on the track and field team; and Olivia Hedistan, a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences who is on the women's soccer team, also ate with the students in TDR, according to King.
"I volunteered for the opportunity," King said. "It's not every day you get to experience new cultures like this. It was very rewarding."
After lunch, the students engaged in a round-table discussion with Johnson, Karch and O'Neill about potential career opportunities.
Officials in Iraq and Afghanistan have approached the President's Council on Physical Fitness with a desire to establish a program similar to that of Jordan in their respective countries, according to Johnson.
"We're in the preliminary consulting stage with them," Johnson said.
The students arrived in the United States on Sunday and spent Monday touring D.C. Mai Al Qawasmeh, one of the students, said she enjoyed the hotel she stayed at in D.C.
"When they first told us we were going to stay at a 100-year-old place we, the kids, said, 'No, no, forget it, let's just go back to Jordan,'" she said. "But when we got there, we felt like we were the first guests the place ever had. It was so nice and so clean."
The students are not strangers to being honored for their achievements. Last May, they met King Abdullah, Queen Rania and the Jordanian royals' daughter, Princess Iman, in a ceremony commending them. More recently, on Jan. 14, ambassador David Hale congratulated each of them at the American Embassy in Jordan, according to Yather Abu Aqel, another Jordanian student.
