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Recognizing that the differences between its culture and that of the United States presented both challenges and opportunities, in 1951 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia established the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the United States (SACM), which is currently located at 8500 Hilltop Road in Fairfax, Virginia. The SACM has a dual purpose. First, it acts as an intermediary between the two cultures. It carries out this mission by participating in a host of cultural, social and academic activities, both in the area surrounding the SACM in Fairfax, Virginia, and nationwide. Second, it acts as both a guide and a resource to Saudi students in the United States, helping them to navigate the complex regulations pertaining to foreign nationals studying in the United States, and also to understand and acclimate to the American system of higher education.

Many of the best students in Saudi Arabia aspire to study in the United States for their post-secondary degrees, and their country is eager to help them achieve that goal. Many Saudi students whose academic qualifications earn them admission to American colleges and universities are financially supported by scholarships provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. These scholarships, which free the students from worries about financing their educations and enable them to concentrate more completely on their studies, are administered in the United States by the SACM from its Fairfax, Virginia, facilities. In past years, the SACM was decentralized operation, establishing satellite locations in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Houston. Prior to the advent of modern communication technology, that decentralization facilitated the SACM?s supervision of Saudi students across the United States and improved the SACM?s ability to provide them with academic advice and other support. However, by 1988, technological advances rendered these satellite offices superfluous, and the SACM consolidated all its staff and activities in Washington, DC, near the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia. More recently, the SACM moved to its new 8500 Hilltop Road complex in Fairfax, Virginia.

January 7, 2012

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