They're Among Us - Students

A couple months ago I posted a challenge to look at the area you live and see if there are people from unreached people groups (UPGs) living nearby.  I want to dig into that and look at some specifics. This will be the first in a short series looking at some of the different demographics of people from UPGs living in the United States. 

The first group I want to explore is students.  At any given time there are close to half a million students from nations in the 10/40 window studying in the US. For the 2012-13 school year among the top 10 countries sending students to the US were: China (235k), India (96k), Saudi Arabia (44k), Japan (20k), Vietnam (16k), and Turkey (11k).  Other nations in the top 20 include Nepal, Iran, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia*.

Why is this important?  First, many of these students hail from unreached people groups, which gives us unprecedented access to people from nations where we often have difficult time getting to.  Second, 40% of the world's current 220 heads of state studied in the United States at some point.  Imagine how different our world could look if people had reached out to them during that time.  Finally, It's important because currently we're not doing a good job of even attempting to reach these students.  Of the nearly half million students here at any given time, 80% will return to their home country without ever having been invited into an American home.**  If you live anywhere near a state university, chances are good that you have an opportunity to help change this number. 

*Stats taken from The Institute of International Education
**Taken from The Traveling Team