STUDENTS IN SHANGHAI: St. Louis is being represented in Shanghai at the 2010 World Expo by Alexander Brescia of Webster Groves, a University of Notre Dame graduate, and Samantha Alpert of Phoenix, a student at Washington University.

The two are among 160 college students and recent graduates who are servings as student ambassadors at the Expo. Each student is fluent in Chinese and represents the United States at the Expo, welcoming and helping inform and entertain an anticipated 35,000 daily visitors.

The students are working at the USA Pavilion, whose theme is "Rising to the Challenge." For most visitors to the Pavilion, this is their first -- and maybe only -- interaction with Americans. Executives of the Pavilion say more than 3 million guests have visited in the first three months of the Expo and that the students are helping change their perceptions of Americans.