The scene is familiar: a group of Nebraskans discussing plans for watching the Husker football game on Saturday. The setting is unique: Bologna, Italy, where five Nebraskans convened last fall to study international relations and economics at the Bologna Center of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

We were all heartened to discover we would not be alone in fighting the seven-hour time difference between Italy and Memorial Stadium. And I was equally pleased to learn a surprising statistic: Native Nebraskans constituted 5 percent of the American students in the Bologna Center class of 2008 — that was far more than at any time in the past seven years, and perhaps ever. In a class of 190 students from 32 U.S. states and more than 30 countries, this is a noteworthy fact.

The upward trend in the number of Nebraskans participating in international education programs at home and abroad should be encouraged. The oft-cited benefits of international education are important: exposure to different points of view; knowledge of foreign languages; and increased confidence from living in another culture.

But there is more. Beyond conditioning Nebraska to be a strong player in the interconnected world of the 21st century, a commitment to international education will strengthen the diplomatic muscle of the United States by equipping Nebraskans to address the diplomatic and economic challenges we now face in a more globalized world. Here’s how.

First, the United States needs every ambassador it can get. The latest survey of the Pew Global Attitudes Project, released in June by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, showed that the U.S. image abroad continues to suffer. Though it has improved slightly in 10 of 21 countries for which comparative data are available, majorities in half of the countries surveyed still have a negative view of the United States.

These are not the unimportant results of a popularity contest. Rather, they reflect how others view U.S. leadership. Negative perceptions of the United States handicap the pursuit of our own interests in the world and hamstring our ability to lead in addressing transnational challenges, such as international trade, global health and environmental issues.

Studying and traveling abroad and hosting foreign visitors in Nebraska can help mitigate this trend. Contact with foreign citizens drives home the distinction between a nation’s people and its policies. It keeps us from personifying nations, leading to a more nuanced understanding of other countries. Such exchanges also present daily opportunities for practicing an important diplomatic skill: listening to others. They in turn get to hear what America is all about from real, live Americans.

One need not spend a year abroad — or even leave the farm — to be an ambassador for the United States. My parents-in-law, who grow corn and soybeans near Trumbull, welcomed 20 Japanese visitors to their farm several years ago through the Hastings-Arapahoe-Ozu, Japan sister city program. In March, my father-in-law spent some time discussing agricultural practices with an Italian vintner during a 10-day vacation in Italy. By doing so, he was as much an ambassador for the United States as a student spending a year abroad is.

There is ample opportunity to get involved. Programs such as the Friendship Force of Lincoln and local chapters of the National Council for International Visitors in Omaha, Lincoln and Grand Island host visitors from abroad in Nebraska. These exchanges matter. Multiply one conversation between a Nebraskan and a foreign citizen by the thousands of Nebraskans who travel abroad each year or host a foreign visitor, and you get an important force in America’s diplomatic toolbox.

Second, participating in the global economy is now inevitable, so we should do our best to understand how it works, particularly at a time when many countries have a negative perception of U.S. economic influence. Majorities in many of the 24 countries in the Pew survey expressed this view — most emphatically in the economic powerhouses of Western Europe, such as Great Britain and Germany, our allies. Another country reporting this view is Mexico, the No. 2 destination for Nebraska exports.

International education is not a magic bullet for successful foreign and economic policy. But it does provide a wider context and important perspective for thinking about the world’s challenges and asking thoughtful questions. It helps us better understand what motivates others to act as they do — the key to settling differences of any kind.

The return on investment of international education takes time. Much as a 22-year-old dripping small amounts of money into a retirement savings account will see the power of compounded interest 15 or 20 years later, a large stock of informed citizens thinking critically about America’s relationship to the rest of the world will offer invaluable dividends to Nebraska and to the United States.

Jill Kosch O’Donnell, a Columbus native, is an M.A. candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C.