Exchange program benefits students and host families

It’s 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, and I am at a meeting in the basement of the MTA building. I’m here because, as someone who has been on foreign exchange, I have the experience and key advice for the other students at the meeting.

Before the conference officially starts, Jeff Johnson, Rotary Youth Exchange officer for Palmer, looked around at the three young ladies from Palmer High and asked, “Well, it’s been about three weeks since we chose you all; how do you guys feel? Any regrets?”

Simultaneously, confidently and instantly the two sophomores and one junior shook their heads, no. These three students are certain, as they are a few of the many people who have and will represent Palmer and the United States as ambassadors. They are assured by the surprisingly strong international background that their community holds.

For what a relatively small community the Valley is, it’s amazing to see how much the area is culturally involved. Not only does Palmer High School represent the entire Rotary exchange delegation for the Valley, it also hosts many inbound exchange students as well. Programs such as American Field Service (AFS), Ayusa, Program of Academic Exchange (PAX) and Rotary have students at Palmer. In a normal day at school, I hear rapid Spanish from Fernanda, Andres and Luis from Mexico and Spain, speak German with Felix, learn Danish as explained to me by Ellen from Denmark and read the cryptic language of Thai on Yin’s Facebook.

As they participate in school and extra-curricular activities, it’s very clear to me that these inbounds feel perfectly welcome as normal members in our community and know that their different cultures and backgrounds are valued lessons among their peers.

Exchange students aren’t the only illustration of international interest at Palmer High. There are many other opportunities for national enlightenment. For one, there is the option of taking either French from native speaker Margot Easter or Spanish from the dedicated Suzanne Gerhardt. Once a week after school, Ms. Easter holds meetings for International Club. Here, students have a chance to interact with all the exchange students and participate in multicultural activities.

Let’s not forget the fact that big signs all around the school hang near just about every room and appliance in the building providing Spanish translations for whatever they label.

Palmer High isn’t the only school in the area that goes to such measures to slake that international thirst. Every school in the district offers Spanish, while Colony and Wasilla also provide Japanese and French classes. German was taught in years past at Colony, and Russian is a class that is specific to Wasilla High. Both schools host exchange students from places similar to those at Palmer, and even welcome students from different parts of the world, like Italy and Taiwan, as well as students from programs like Save the World.

Colony and Wasilla boast Japanese National Honor Society groups, which support students in their studies of the language as well as the culture. Like Palmer, Wasilla also includes an International Club in its extensive list of extra-curricular activities.

The Valley as a whole is involved internationally on multiple levels. A key factor to this is the sister city relationship the area has with Saroma, Japan. This bond was started more than 30 years ago and has since endured through the decades. Each year Palmer and Colony Middle schools send a party of about 10 students to Saroma, and in return host the same amount of teenagers from Saroma.

Both parties spend an average of two weeks in the respective countries attending school, learning about the culture and exploring new frontiers. The relationship doesn’t end there, as Saroma and the Valley also connect on an administrative level. Like the middle schools, both cities occasionally send contingencies from their governments to learn from each other about the development of their communities.

The Mat-Su Valley seems very small sometimes, a wonderful place where friendships are made and held with loving strength through generations. This makes it all the more majestic and magnificent to see that our area still grasps a global sense of action, and realizes the importance of the relations we make internationally. With this, we are able to share our own culture and demonstrate those powerful ties in which we find welcoming care, but also so that we may learn and always understand the world as a whole.

Kaden Weaver is a senior at Palmer High School.