LITTLE ROCK — Fifteen years after a systematic genocide led to the deaths of an estimated 1 million people, or around 20 percent of the population, in the small landlocked country, an Arkansas-based program is helping that nation to rebuild through education.

"The program was actually started by President [Paul] Kagame himself in 2006. The concept was that Rwanda would identify its best and brightest students in science and arrange to have those students educated abroad in other countries," said David Knight, vice chairman of the Hendrix College board of trustees, who was on a visit to Rwanda in 2006 when he heard about the program launching at Oklahoma Christian University and contemplated how Hendrix could get involved.

Ultimately, the agreement was that a group of U.S. educators would travel to Rwanda and interview the students who scored highest in math and sciences on the country's post-high school national examination. The very best of those would be offered scholarships, could earn a degree here, and would return home afterward to help rebuild their country. The focus on math and sciences, said Knight, was the choice of Rwanda, which lost many of its leading minds in the genocide. And unlike business or finance, advanced education in most sciences takes work in labs that just aren't available in Rwanda.

So in the fall of 2007, a pilot group of four students came to the Conway college to study under the Presidential Scholars Program. They were so successful academically, Knight said, that last year 25 more students came over - and by then four other schools in Arkansas and one in South Carolina had joined the program. This summer, 52 more students have come and will start in the fall. At the same time, the number of participating schools has grown to 12 - a mix of both public and private universities and colleges - in five states. Since the students are educated in French, they first come to Arkansas for an intensive multi-week course in English before spreading out to their respective schools.

While the key to growth has been making it easy for schools to participate by handling all the program administration through Hendrix, Knight said, the key to success has been the students themselves. Collectively, at the end of last fall the group had a grade point over 3.7. Twelve of the 29 students here then had a perfect 4.0.

"Absolutely I'm a believer that this is a two-way bridge," said Knight, who pointed out that while the students and their home country will benefit greatly from their American education, the schools themselves benefit from having these minds on campus. "They're extremely intelligent, diligent and hard working."

Alex Mugengana, Philander Smith College

Alex wants to help people. Studying chemistry, he hopes to be able to take his studies further into medical school and become a doctor, something that isn't always available back home.

"People have to travel abroad from Rwanda to get medical care. There is not enough," he said.

So coming here was "a great opportunity. We have colleges and universities back home, but they cannot compare with universities here," he said, pointing to differences in labs, which actually allow you to practice what you study, and closer interaction with professors. And then there is the library where he works. An avid reader, he notes how accessibility to books is so much greater here.

But he hasn't spent all his time reading. Like a lot of 20-year-old college students, he loves the Wii and has become a fan of TV's 24 and Prison Break. He also has taken a liking to American football and basketball. Baseball, not so much.

The fourth oldest of nine children, Alex was not actually born in Rwanda, but in Tanzania, where his parents had fled in 1959, when the civil conflicts that persisted into the '90s began. They moved back to the capital city Kigali in 1995, the year after the genocide, an event Alex doesn't talk much about.

"It was a disaster for us," he says, simply and sadly.

Being separated from his family is probably the hardest part of being here, he said, but he keeps in touch with them - less frequently the longer he's here, not unlike most American college students.

"They are very proud of me. They encourage me to work hard," he said. "It is a privilege to come and study abroad and get an advanced degree."

Pierre Urisanga, Hendrix College

Living in Musanze in the northern province of Rwanda, 20-year-old Pierre saw the genocide first-hand, though he said the army that put a stop to it came from Uganda in the north and spared that region to a degree.

But like the rest of the nation, he was affected, and that is why he is here. A physics major (and maybe computer science, too) with designs on graduate school, he plans to become an engineer, ideally in telecommunications but perhaps in construction.

"This is a profession we need in our country," he said. "Whenever we have to build a house or a roadway, we have to go to China or Germany."

Since coming, he's done nothing but learn, and not just in the classroom. Count cultural awareness in there, too.

"The people here are very friendly, and I did not expect that," he said. "In our country, you greet someone you know. If you don't know someone, you don't say hi. When I first arrived here and people would greet me, I would think 'Where do I know that guy from?'"

But Pierre said one of his biggest surprises coming here was that, in his studies, he was required to take classes other than math and science.

"I though that, as I came to study sciences, I only needed science classes," he wrote in an essay about his experiences. "I did not know what Liberal Arts College is, nor did I know what a well-rounded person is."

He now appreciates that aspect of the education here, an education he never thought he would have being one of the youngest of eight children in a poor family. When he found out he could come study here, "it was like [coming to] another planet, that's how I felt."

This other planet, with its Big Macs and baseball (yes, he's a fan now), is enjoyable, though, he said.

Valens Nteziyaremye, UALR

Before coming to Arkansas, Valens had never driven a car. Most people back home haven't, he said, describing how walking or taking a taxi is more common. But Valens, who learned to drive from a friend and got licensed here, has since purchased a 1998 Nissan Altima, driven to Oklahoma, and says he hopes to see more.

"I would like to travel to as many states as possible before I go home," he said, noting a particular interest in New York and Washington, D.C.

But of course the point of being here is education, and in that regard he is studying mechanical engineering, with the hopes of one day earning a doctorate ("it is my dream") and bringing the aerospace industry to Rwanda.

"I want to work with : airplanes and spacecraft," he said. "I want to design airplanes or have my own company back home.

"I want to be the first to bring it [to Rwanda] - or maybe the second."

It's a change of plans from his original career goals in high school, to go into medicine. He'd thought then of studying abroad, but knew his family couldn't afford to send him here. When he arrived in the U.S., he was a little deterred from retaking many of the sciences he'd already studied in French, since this time he'd have to take them in English. Engineering was both a logical and a useful choice.

Growing up in Kigali, except for about two years in Congo during the genocide, he went to a boarding school in high school - coincidentally, the same school as Alex Mugengana - and says that experience helped him prepare for life here.

"It is hard sometimes, but I am used to staying away from home," he said.

Still, life here has taken some adjustment, even for little things. For instance, at 21, he can legally drink if wants, but the idea of an age limit was new. At home, "I think there is no age [limit]."

Then again, some things are familiar. A soccer player all through primary and high school, Valens and his friends have formed a team to play weekly at Burns Park. Asked if they routinely trounce the competition, a shy smile indicates they might, but no answer comes.

Prosper Majyambere, Harding University

True to his name, Prosper would like to see his home in the Kayonza district of eastern Rwanda light up, literally. An electrical engineering major, the 20-year-old sees the large-scale lack of electricity in the country as a hindrance to development and believes the vast lakes of the region are an untapped resource in turning things around.

"I think electricity is the main thing. You have to use it to do everything," he said. "In industry or your laptop, you need electricity to power it."

He is proud to be part of the government's plan for recovery, called Vision 2020, which sets specific long- and short-term goals for establishing progress.

"It is always good to have a name that this was done by," he said. "You can feel proud of what you did, because you've helped reach the goals. And when it makes lives better than they were, that is a good thing."

Coming from a small family, only three brothers and sisters, Prosper was evacuated to Tanzania during the genocide. He spent three years there and started school there. Like most families, he lost relatives to that tragedy.

But education, he said, is the best way to rebuild.

"The most important help you can give someone is to allow them to be educated," he said.

His education here has included everything from seeing snow for the first time and learning to ski on a trip to Colorado to living with "ketchup everywhere" in American cuisine. He says he hasn't had much trouble adapting, but points to a close network of friends - particularly three other Rwandan students at Harding - as a pillar of support. For example, the four made a pact to only speak English, even with each other, to help them all improve. They've stuck to it, despite any awkwardness.

"When someone wants to make a joke, it can be difficult. If you have to translate something, it can take a few minutes," he said.

Working two jobs this summer, he spends most of the day cleaning and tidying around campus. But in the afternoons, he works in an electronics lab sorting and organizing components like transistors and capacitors, work he says will help him in his major.