It’s 1:54 p.m. on Wednesday at Ames High School and an unfamiliar voice can be heard chatting among the 11th-grade class. Ridwanu Nuhu, an exchange student from the northern part of Nigeria, speaks in a thick Hausa accent.

He misses his parents, but he hasn’t been able to speak to them since he arrived in August. His dad, a teacher in an Islamic school in Nigeria, and his mom, a tailor, are too poor to afford a phone at home. He is homesick, but he has transitioned well into his new world. Nanette Heginger, Nuhu’s host mom, said everything has been smooth so far — except for Nuhu skipping class Monday. Heginger lives in Ames with her husband Burton, her 3-year-old son Eli and her 16-year-old daughter Joi.

Nuhu is part of an initiative called Partnerships for Learning, which was developed by the State Department’s Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs after Sept. 11. The Youth Exchange and Study program, which was developed under this initiative, brings high school students from countries with Muslim populations to the United States to learn about U.S. culture and teach others about Muslim culture.

Iowa Resource for International Service, a nonprofit organization in Ames headed by former Iowa Lt. Gov. Bob Anderson, was successful in winning a contract in 2002 to bring Nigerian high school students to Iowa. This year, it brought 19 high school students from Nigeria. They will stay with Iowa host families and go to Iowa schools for a year.

Chudi Okafor, a Nigerian specialist for the World Bank who received his Ph.D. from Iowa State, said he doesn’t doubt programs like this are necessary.

“The Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, in collaboration with the World Bank and other international donor groups, carried out a strategic conflict assessment of Nigeria and found that poverty, underdevelopment and unemployment are a breeding ground for grievances,” Okafor said.

Nuhu is no stranger to such problems. Nigeria is divided mainly into a Muslim Hausa-speaking North and a Christian South. In November 2002, the year before the Youth Exchange and Study program started, fighting broke out and several hundred people were killed in the northern region of Nigeria because Muslim groups were upset about the Miss World pageant that was being held in Nigeria at the time.

Anderson said he faced similar opposition from Muslim groups in the first year of the program.

“When we first started the program, there were a number of clerics and religious groups who voiced objection to the program, and it is another sign of success that there is much less and, in fact, almost none of that kind of objection,” he said.

Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco has hosted exchange groups at Ames City Hall and said he hopes the program will help reach a better understanding of the world.

Anderson said a similar program existed with youth from the former Soviet Union after it was dissolved in 1991. He said students from the Nigerian YES program who have gone back to Nigeria have helped start peace clubs, which has helped reduce youth involvement in violence as well as corrected misconceptions about the United States.

“The program has increased visibility about the United States and about the particular experiences of the student,” Anderson said. “The fact that they have been able to go to mosques, they have been able to worship freely, that Christians and Muslims here don’t hate each other, is information that the students have gained and they have shared.”

In June, President Bush met with some students who were returning to their home countries after a year as part of the YES program.

“I think your generation is going to help shape one of the most exciting periods of history in the broader Middle East and the world,” Bush said in his speech.

On Sept. 26, state representatives, Daryl Beall, Helen Miller and Willard Jenkins will be traveling with Anderson to Nigeria to discuss strategies in promoting democracy.