Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. On Saturday, May 30, 21 Southeast Asian undergraduate scholars enjoyed a barbecue at Mark Smith and Randy Sachter’s home in Old Town Nederland. The following Monday, they had an appointment to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House for an intimate question and answer session.

The students are among the leaders and top students of the colleges they attend and were chosen out of thousands of applicants to participate in Obama’s Legacy program to foster better relationships with Southeast Asia. They are part of an innovative environmental leadership program that promotes a greater understanding of the US environmental movement and aids in the development of sustainable pathways to environmental stewardship.

The students recently spent three weeks in Hawaii; they then came to Denver and then Boulder over the Memorial Day weekend. After their session in Washington, D.C., the students will return to their homes in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines to share their experience and use the knowledge they’ve gained to help their countries.

David Steinmann of Gold Hill, a research associate with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and a wetlands biologist, took five of the students on a trek to Red Rocks Lake on the way to Brainard Lake, where they saw snow for the first time. Steinmann said they were ecstatic: they touched the snow carefully at first, surprised at how cold it was, then they grabbed it, threw it, slid on it, and jumped into the five foot drifts.

“It was the highlight of their trip,” says Steinmann.

Sachter and Smith have hosted the event since 2009, when their son Gabriel was working on his master’s degree in Hawaii and met some students with the State Department-funded Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative. Gabe told the Leadership Education Specialist, Christina Monroe, that when the group arrived in Boulder they should call his parents, and the Nederland couple has been welcoming groups from all over the world twice a summer ever since.

Nederland government officials and former teachers and friends joined the students for the barbecue and to answer questions and exchange ideas about the world. Mayor Joe Gierlach and former Mayor Martin Cheshes, a former diplomat, talked with groups of the young people. Miner Tom Hendricks spoke about environmentally safe mining; and Jim Elder, president of the Nederland Area Seniors, told jokes that the students in stitches.

After everyone had their fill of burgers, chicken sausage, mushrooms, salads, cookies, fruit, and homemade ice cream, each student had a chance to tell the group what they hope their legacy will be.

Their expressed goals included helping the poor; promoting equal opportunities; promoting discourse among developing regions; joining young people all over the world and being a green hero; improving agriculture and environmental awareness in young minds; conserving the whales and dolphins for the future; enjoying the great outdoors and being a responsible mountaineer.

Amalina, 23, who is an undergraduate law student at the International Islamic University in Malaysia, said she wants to work in the environmental field, not the corporate community. She is in her final semester of school and then she plans to go to South Africa on a human rights mission. In nine months she will be ready for the bar. Her ultimate goal is to work for the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands. “I would like to express gratitude to the Americans for making this happen,” she said.

Christina Monroe said the students were especially grateful to Mark Smith and Randy Sachter for inviting them into their home.

“They are completely welcoming to the students and flexible with last minute changes. It means a lot to the students to come into an American home. That is special to them.”

The Nederland residents who met the students and had a chance to talk to them were charmed by their open eagerness for conversation and the songs they sang in their native languages, filled with easy laughter and friendly banter.