Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, which is often considered an unsafe destination for Americans, is just the place Rachel Mills, class of ’11, decided to visit.

Mills spent four weeks this past summer in Kabul with a few other American students, teaching students at the Kateb Institute of Higher Learning and Tabesh Institute of Higher Learning.

Her instruction focused on explaining how to debate.

At the end of the class, her students participated in a debate tournament.

The four other American students who accompanied Rachel to Afghanistan were Josh McCormick of Yale University, Clayton Goss of Sam Houston State University, Nick Ducote of Louisiana Tech University and Rachel Cox of Louisiana State University at Shreveport.

“All were experienced IPDA debaters, with five national championships among us,” Mills said.

Two of Mills’ students from Tabesh Institute for Higher Learning won the tournament.

Two of her students from Kateb Institute of Higher Learning placed in the top 10.

Mills said that the students who grew up in a country that is just beginning to gain individual freedom have a difficult time grasping the concept of debate. The students worked hard though, and improved drastically, she said.

Kabul is a mix of traditional and progressive, where one may see a goat herder walking down the street next to a smart car.

“Younger generations are looking outside of their country,”  Mills said during her presentation.

Contrary to stereotypes, Afghanistan residents are actually grateful for America’s help, she said.

Mills said that while they eventually want to have an independent stable government, they recognize that they need assistance to get to that point.

“The people have such a resilience,” Mills said.

She said she decided to go to Afghanistan “on a whim.”

She applied for the program through an organization called Afghans for Progressive Thinking, which works with university students around the world to help motivate students in Afghanistan to build a better country through lectures and workshops.

While Mills said she doesn’t intend to live in Kabul forever, she is returning next August to help expand the debate project she worked on last summer.

This time, Mills will teach Afghan students how to create their own a sustainable debate program.

Freshman Cody Purchase said that his favorite part of the lecture was how Mills got along with the Afghan students despite the impression from the media and how she could see their potential.

While Mills’s short-term plans involve visiting Afghanistan a second time, Mills said her long-term goal is to “become a juvenile fiction author, writing about events going on in other places.”

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Meghan O’Rourke/Opinion editor
Meghan O’Rourke can be reached at [email protected].