After a previous leadership conference experience in Australia this summer, Government of the Student Body President Sophia Magill jumped at the chance to travel to Israel for another learning experience.

She was one of 15 student body government presidents from across the nation to be chosen to participate in the expense-paid Project Interchange Seminar held in Israel from Dec. 26 to Jan. 3.

The main purpose of the seminar is to provide a greater understanding of Israel and its unique circumstances, which is improved by being able to actually travel to Israel and interact with the people, said Magill, senior in political science.

“Out of all the people that I interacted with, I enjoyed talking with a very fascinating couple from Israel. Our discussions were politically oriented, and our dialogue was quite passionate,” she said.

Magill applied for Project Interchange in September and went through an interview process. She joined participants from universities in Nebraska, Oklahoma, Montana, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, South Dakota and Minnesota.

Project Interchange is a non-profit, non-partisan organization funded by private individuals and foundations, according to the organization’s Web site.

“I was excited to find that this dream may be closer to reality than I imagined. After my experience with the Israeli couple, I was given a brief view of life in Israel, and I feel that through Project Interchange, I would have the opportunity to broaden not only my perspective, but in turn the perspective of other students, administrators, faculty, staff and community members,” Magill said.

Founded in 1982, Project Interchange is a national organization solely dedicated to providing educational seminars in Israel for America’s policy and opinion makers. More than 3,500 American leaders have participated in Project Interchange’s intensive seminars in Israel. During each seminar, participants receive a comprehensive overview of Israeli society and politics tailored to the specific group, including briefings with top Israeli government and military officials, discussions with Palestinian and Arab-Israeli community leaders and visits to sites of historical, strategic and religious significance, according the site.

Students toured the Security Fence at Kfar Saba, accompanied by a representative from Israel’s Defense Force. They were also taken to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial.

They also held a discussion about the future of the Middle East Peace Process with Avelet Yehiev of Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

“Apart from brief meetings within the United States, this was my first real encounter with Israeli citizens. I realized from our conversation how truly ignorant I was to the culture and issues of Israel,” Magill said.

“Until that point, all the information that I reaped from Israel came though a medium of some sort.”