Student exchange programs break down boundaries of learning

Rebecca Wachter isn't your average girl next door. At 18, this 2003 Wasilla High School graduate has already seen more of the world than most people will see in a lifetime: She swam in the Dead Sea; went shopping in Estonia; climbed to the top of the steeple of the world's second-largest cathedral, in Germany; enjoyed the midnight sun from an outdoor sauna in Finland; and witnessed a classroom full of children being taught lessons in Yupik on the Yukon River Delta.

"She's got a travel bug that won't quit. Give her the slightest reason and she's got her stuff packed and is gone before you know it," said Rebecca's father, Jim Wachter.

Student exchange and foreign study programs afford students like Wachter extraordinary opportunities. More than 50 students from Alaska will study abroad for a summer, a semester or a full year in the coming school year, through either Youth For Understanding or Rotary Youth Exchange. Still more will participate in shorter-length programs such as the Rural Youth Exchange Program, which exchanges students between rural and urban Alaska communities, or People to People, which offers international travel and study opportunities. And the President's Council on Standards for International Education Travel recognizes many more.

"The reason exchange programs exist is right in our name -- Youth For Understanding," said YFU field director for Alaska and Washington, Patti Floyd. "Young people are growing and developing a sense of self and deciding where they fit -- in their own little world and in the world in general."

Floyd said YFU works to increase understanding among students from different countries and cultures. And the Rotary Youth Exchange shares a similar goal.

"Our purpose is to have students serve as young ambassadors to build bridges between their host families, their homes and their communities," said Woody Angst, the general chairman for Rotary District 5010 Youth Exchange Program.

And both programs are looking for similar types of students.

"We're looking for above average students. But they don't have to have straight A's; they don't have to be captain of the football team or first-chair violinists," said Angst. "But they do have to be active in their community, whether it's through their school, their church or just community service. We want well-rounded, stable individuals who have self confidence and are not judgmental."

Colony High junior Kristen Fox, who will be traveling to Brazil as a member of Rotary Youth Exchange in August, fits that bill. Fox was vice-president of her sophomore class; is involved in Colony High's leadership program; and is a member of Teens Against Tobacco Use. She also cheers on two cheerleading squads -- CHS's varsity squad and the Denali All Stars -- and is on the coaching staff for a Pop Warner cheerleading squad--the Stealers. And she exudes self-confidence.

"I'm going to get involved in a lot of activities while I'm there," said Fox. "And I'm going to meet a lot of people."

Angst said that's just the sort of attitude a Rotary Youth Exchange student needs to be successful.

"The more families they can be involved with, the more activities they participate in and the more connections they make, the more effective they will be as student ambassadors," he said.

And YFU expects its students to get involved in their exchange schools too.

"We expect them to be serious students and to participate in school fully," Floyd said.

While both programs hold similar expectations for students, the two hold different ideals for the length of travel and the sorts of living arrangements students will experience. Rotary, for example, arranges for students to stay with three different families over the course of one year in the country they visit. YFU prefers students to stay with one family for the extent of their visit. And students traveling with YFU can opt for summer, semester or full-year programs.

"Students can choose the program that's right for them. Our goal is for them to stay with one family for the entire time, but they can move if necessary," Floyd said. "We would be na•ve to think that a person would always match the family we've placed them with."

Choice is one of the biggest differences between the two programs. Rotary exchanges with 20 countries around the world, and district committees select the country in which each student is placed.

"We are not a travel agent or a placement service for parents who simply want their child to have an international experience," Angst said.

He said students can list countries that they'd prefer to visit, as well as those they'd prefer not to. But the committees have the final say. The District 5010 committee, for instance, which is composed of members from 30 clubs within Alaska and the Yukon Territory, determines the destinations of Alaska's exchange students.

"The big thing about our program is that we make a commitment to find two kids from two countries for exchange," said Angst.

He said if the District 5010 committee agrees to accept a student from Brazil, for example, then it must also agree to send one student to Brazil. If they accept one student from Brazil, one from Mexico and one from Germany, but have Alaskan students only willing to travel to Mexico and Germany, the program can't work.

YFU, on the other hand, allows students to select from among 50 countries worldwide. Whether a student gets his or her first choice depends on whether the organization can find a host family in the preferred country.

The different choices lead to differences in costs for the two programs. By keeping the field level, Angst said Rotary can charge a flat fee to all its youth exchange students. Students participating during the 2003-2004 school year will pay $4,300 each, regardless of their destination. This fee covers travel expenses and the necessary supplies to serve as young ambassadors: a blazer, a slide presentation, business cards, lapel pins for trading and a language camp, where available. Host families provide room and board and assume the costs for food.

The costs for participating in a YFU exchange, however, vary depending on the length of the exchange and the country a student travels to. According to the YFU Web site, costs for the 2003-2004 school year range from $3175 for a summer in Estonia, to $15,175 for a year in England or Scotland. And, like the Rotary's, YFU host families pick up food expenses, along with room and board as well.

YFU also offers short trips to students once they've reached their host country that are not included in the package price. Rebecca Wachter, who spent a summer in Finland as a YFU exchange student, for example, took a YFU sponsored trip to Stockholm, Sweden while there. And she traveled to Estonia on a shopping trip with her host family. Both trips cost her money.

But Floyd said a number of scholarships are available, and students can participate in fundraising activities.

"We believe that when a student takes the initiative to look for scholarships or takes part in fundraising, the experience means more," she said.

Wachter did just that.

"In each case there are out of pocket expenses and scholarships," said Wachter's father. "She catches wind of them, finds out what funds are available and then asks us for the minimum. She's pretty motivated."

While paying for a student's exchange trip is one concern for parents, safety is another. Cindy Fox, whose daughter will soon be leaving for Brazil, is worried. She said the city her daughter is headed to, Brazilia, has over 2 million people, and she'll be living in an apartment building with armed security guards.

Both Rotary and YFU work to abate parents' fears. Both conduct background checks on potential host families and screen families through an application process, interviews and references. And both ensure that students have someone to turn to outside of their host-family's home.

"We can always reach students and students can always reach us," Floyd said.

And Angst said Rotary provides two contacts for students in need: The president of each club serves as one contact person, and club counselors are appointed to serve as another.

"The leadership is always two deep, so there would be a second person to talk to," he said.

The students' fees cover round-trip, full-fare travel reservations with open-ended returns, he said.

"We do it this way for a very intentional reason," Angst said. "We can have a student back home within 36 hours from anywhere in the world, in an emergency situation."

Even so, Fox's mother said she wishes her daughter wasn't traveling so far from home. And she wishes she didn't have to leave for so long. She said her husband, who was an exchange student in the Dominican Republican when he was in high school, was the impetus behind her daughter's decision to go.

"I was more in favor of the 'Why don't you just travel?' idea, rather than the exchange program idea," she said.

Though the younger Fox said she wanted "the whole experience," there are alternatives out there that would have been more to her mother's liking. The Rural Youth Exchange, for instance, offers exchange opportunities between urban and rural communities right here in Alaska. And People to People offers two-to-three-week summer trips to a number of foreign destinations.

Wachter said his daughter began her adventures as an exchange student under the Rural Youth Exchange. She spent two weeks in her sophomore year as an exchange student in Emmonak, which is located on the Yukon River Delta.

"She said it was very different, but she really enjoyed it," he said.

And Maggie Coyle, a 15-year-old sophomore at Colony High, spent three weeks this summer in Europe with People-to-People. She traveled with a group of about 30 kids to Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales. Though her stay in each country was short, Coyle said she was able to see how other people lived.

"We stayed at people's homes in England and Ireland. We stayed in groups of two or three, for three nights in both places," said Coyle.

Coyle said she might like to travel some more.

"I'd like to go back to England or Scotland," she said.

Coyle's three-week stay in Europe may have sparked a travel bug in her like the one in Wachter. Though her high-school career ended this May, Wachter's experiences as an exchange student continue to mount.

"She had a chance to apply for a 10-day-trip to Israel sponsored by the Israeli government," said her father, adding that she was en-route back to the U.S., even as he spoke. "We were worried about her safety. But we know Rebecca. She was going to do this no matter what."