The Exchange Student
I remember when Camy came to live with our family for a year. It seemed my mother had been pestering me for months about the idea of hosting an AFS student. Long before she even crossed the Atlantic from Italy on an airplane, Camy entered the daily conversations and thoughts of my mother. To be precise, I believe it was April of my junior year in high school.
"Do we have to talk about this now?" I kept asking, wanting to push the idea into some sort of vacuum that sucked it to the back of my mind.
"You’ll love her," my mom said. "We’ve heard such good things about her from the Mudge family. They hosted her cousin Checo."
"I hate how you always try to make me do things," I said, slightly raising the level of my voice.
"Eric, now you know I’ve never made you do anything you didn’t want to do."
I was ready for her though.
"Oh yeah, what about the horseback riding lessons in first grade that I had to take?" I said, recalling the image of the seven-year-old perched on top of a brown pony with the reigns in hand, as the over-sized riding helmet slid from his forehead down over his eyes. I stopped those lessons as soon as my instructor told me the next step was learning the gallop.
"And what about the swimming lessons with that awful lady who made me put my face in the water and count to ten." This time I saw my instructor, sitting by the edge of the pool, her navy swimsuit fit snugly to her body, spreading out the excess flab of her pale thighs. I remember looking at her the instant before I went under, hoping she would give me a last second reprieve from my face plunging exercise. Instead, all I saw was her wide grin, and all I heard was the lapping of the pool water against its sides.
"Oh Eric," my mom said. "You’re really impossible some times."
"Thanks mom, thanks," I said. And with that, I had managed to put the decision on hold one more time. That is, until my father brought it up at the dinner table a month later.
I’m sure we were having my dad’s legendary spaghetti and sauce the night they picked Camy. I often wonder if my father had truly planned pasta night because he wanted to discuss an Italian girl coming to live with us for a year.
wanted to host an exchange student for a couple of reasons. First, we were at the point in our lives where our careers were moving along and the money wasn't tight. We felt providing the room and board would not put any financial strain on us. Second, it would be a lot of fun to give someone an adventure. Anna came to us as our 3rd exchange student. Anna was a 16-year old FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange Program) student and came to us from Kiev, Ukraine. Anna was one of three students who came to
An exchange student is a student that leaves his/her country for a foreign one for a year, where she/he usually learns a new language and experiences a new culture. Nowadays, there are more than 35 international exchange programs from which very many high school students benefit. For instance, each year, almost 13000 students travel on American Field Service Intercultural Programs between 65 countries (AFS, 2011). Unfortunately, the number of students who go on exchange is still relatively low,
The initial issue was that exchange students are unable to communicate with professors and classmates in a classroom environment. Exchange students are foreign students from other country that are attending an academy at a different country. Imagine yourself in an exchange student’s shoes. How frustrating it would be if you could not communicate with your classmates, understand the lessons in class or even ask questions in class. This was a major issue in most exchange academies in Europe because
that thought out of my head because of the exchange student program. The program allows students from all over the world to spend a year in America and experience our culture. Meeting these students year after year, I never really thought other cultures were extremely different. Most of the students played the same sports we did, wore the same brand of clothes and had the same phones as us. The only major difference I found after speaking to these students was that our school system was different.
Before I come to the United State as an exchange student, I lived in Thailand. I was also born in Thailand. I was always wanted to get the experiences in other country. I am so lucky that my parents are supporting me. Some of my friends, they are also want to study abroad but their parents did not agree with. I could not be here if my parents did not support me and give me suggestions. I came to U.S. in the senior year but my school put me in junior because they could not let me graduate if I will
The value the student hold to the education has a lot to do with the way the education is obtained. A foreign exchange student is willing to leave behind family, friends, their culture, tradition, everything has ever known for the smallest opportunity to be a better person in this world. The constant willingness and undying devotion given to receive a good education by the foreign exchange student is what many students in society life. You can’t teach someone who doesn’t
this I propose a program that would allow students to see the world while they are still in school, realitively unbrudened by things such as work or worry of money, bills or insurence. The program I have in mind is known as the student exchange program. The student exchange program allows for a student to leave their country of residence and take up residence in another country all while
Sometime in April or maybe earlier than that I made the conscious decision to take part in the Student Exchange program my university (University of Ontario Institute of Technology) offered, I always wanted to go on exchange and was inspired by a friend of mine Toyin Oyatogun who seemed to have had a great time from her study abroad. I started the process which I must say was extremely tasking and stressful. I had very limited options mainly because of my program (communications), I had to choose
supported by the advance of technology. Beside that flight ticket is getting cheaper, from the internet we can easily get information about the university abroad, and also there are many agents that help students do registration. According to “Open Doors” survey, The number of international students at U.S. universities increased 7.2 percent in 2012-13 to an all-time high of 819,644 (Inside Higher ED,2013) . They also think that studying abroad will guarantee a better future like easier for their child
Thailand was established in 1962. It is an organization that gives scholarships to Thai students for one year’s study abroad but mostly in America. The organization accepts foreign students, mostly from America to stay in Thailand as well. In 1970, AFS Thailand became an international organization and the number of its member (AFSers) has been dramatically increased. Nowadays, AFS Thailand has over 200,000 students participated in the program and the number is continue to grow. How is this related
your work-experience, but a whole year (or longer) as a transfer-student. Of course, you don’t make such a decision from one minute to the next. It needs to be thought over well. Going to college is a big change in your life because it usually means living on your own for the first time, but as a foreign student it is even a bigger change because you are on your own in another country. This is often the greatest concern for students to go abroad: to leave everything behind. They have trouble leaving
Being An International Student in a Post 9/11 World "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free," just not your students. "I knew what was going to happen after 9/11. It was understood," said Tariq Halela, a 21-year-old student at Boston University. What he understood was simple: for an international student, living in the United States would never be the same. Halela, an Indian born Kuwaiti native, has been studying stateside for over two years. He is an accounting
start, "every body please be quiet, john Roberts see me after assembly" "ok as you all should know already, Tomorrow, the year elevens will each be assigned a foreign exchange student who will be staying with them for the next 6 weeks, the list of names and information is in the cross corridor and as from Tomorrow the students will arrive for the summer." I was nervous, I had never before met a foreign person, and I had no clue as to what he/she might be like. I approached the list of names
unavoidable trend in today’s age. People nowadays have more and more chances to interact with the whole world. Students study abroad to gain more advanced knowledge. Travelers travel all of the world to enrich their experiences. And even a small company starts to consider how to deal with international trade. More interactions happening mean more information exchanges. More information exchanges bring the result that more knowledge and wisdom are shared. As more and more knowledge and wisdom are shared
route for international students to acquire foreign degrees so there is no doubt that internationalisation plays an important role in our lives. Nowadays, British universities tend to realize the importance of internationalisation in higher education and become formally committed to international students. For instance, St. John University in York is keen on meeting the demands of operating in a worldwide environment and as a consequence is offering international students several scholarships to